Barnes Closes Door on Ryno
Tiger Bay Area Amateur Tour / Tampa, FL
by InsidePOOL Staff
After nearly 15 hours of competition, Jessica Barnes outplayed Bethann Ryno to capture the win at the second stop of the Tiger Bay Area Amateur Tour’s (BAAT) 2010 season. The $400-added event was held at Strokers of Tampa, FL, and hosted 20 players from around the state February 27.
Significantly, one player slid into the top three Saturday. Seventy-five-year-old Barbara Ellis, whose previous best finish with BAAT was fifth place, has steadily been improving her game and stroked herself into a third-place finish.
As the tournament progressed, veteran Michell Monk was bested by Shanelle Loraine, who resigned Monk to a seventh-place finish tie with Sis Tarver, who lost to Susanne Cherkowsky. Loraine went to the hill before being eliminated by Valerie Dukick 6-3, tying with Cherkowsky for fifth.
Dukick, who returned to the tour last month after a long hiatus, defeated Tammy Gillis, Kelly Cavanaugh, and Cherkowsky before being sent to the one-loss side by Ellis. Ryno had prevailed over last month’s winner Rachel Delaney and last year’s tour champion Monk before succumbing to Barnes. Dukick and Ryno faced off in the hard-fought quarterfinal match and went hill-hill with Ryno sinking the game-winning ball, taking the match 4-4.
Facing Ryno in the semifinals was Ellis, who defeated Christine Brenner, Lana Loomis, and Dukick before being defeated by Barnes. All but one of Ellis’s matches went to the hill, and this one was no different. The games went back and forth, Ellis playing with new-found deliberation and Ryno stroking with steady determination. Ryno dominated 6-3 and took the opportunity to try to exact revenge on Barnes in the finals.
Ryno outperformed Barnes in the first final match, winning 4-2 in the four-to-five race of the true double-elimination tournament and forcing the second set. But Barnes retaliated with a vengeance in the second set and won it 5-1.
Results:
1st Jessica Barnes $300
2nd Bethann Ryno $225
3rd Barbara Ellis $150
4th Valerie Dukick $100
5th Shanelle Loraine $50
Susanne Cherkowsky $ 50