Corr Wins Her Fifth Joss Billiard Tour Event
Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour / Providence, RI
by Skip Maloney
Women’s Professional Billiards Association (WPBA) player Karen Corr is still the only woman billiard player to have ever won an event on the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour, and on the weekend of May 3-4, she worked her way through a field of 60 entrants undefeated to become the only woman to win five of them. Corr defeated Ivaylo Petrov twice, once for the hot seat and again in the finals of the $2000-added event at Snookers Café and Billiards in Providence, RI.
Earlier on Sunday, the four finalists on the winners’ side battled to identical 9-5 scores to put Corr in the hot seat. Petrov defeated Bob Madenjian, while Corr moved past Randy Labonte. Petrov battled, but Corr prevailed in the hot seat match.
By Sunday, there were only four left on the one-loss side of the bracket, and the early matches there were close. Dave Fernandez and Ray McNamara battled back and forth through advances and ties, neither player moving further than a single game ahead of the other. Both had opportunities to close it out in the subsequent hill-hill game to win it, but it was McNamara who advanced. Bucky Souvanthong jumped out to a 5-0 lead in his battle versus Tom McGonagle, but McGonagle fought back to tie and kept it close, before falling just shy of bringing the match to hill-hill.
Madenjian, over from the winners’ side, took on McNamara, defeating him 9-5, as Souvanthong took on Labonte, defeating him handily 9-3. Souvanthong then held on to best Madenjian 9-6 to move into the semifinals against Petrov. Petrov jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before Souvanthong responded to tie it. The match wavered back and forth to hill-hill, where, just as in the earlier match-up between Fernandez and McNamara, both players had an opportunity to win the final game but passed until Petrov prevailed.
Corr lost no time establishing her rhythm in the final against Petrov. She jumped out to an early lead that she never relinquished and closed out her undefeated weekend with a commanding 9-4 victory.
The 2007-2008 Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour will conclude on the weekend of August 14-17 with a $25,000-added tour finale at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, NY. According to tour director Mike Zugman, the entry list will be capped at 128 competitors, about half of whom have already signed up. The only way to enter this tournament is to contact Zugman directly at 518-356-7163.
Results:
1st Karen Corr
2nd Ivaylo Petrov
3rd Bucky Souvanthong
4th Bob Madenjian
5th Ray McNamara
Randy Labonte
7th Dave Fernandez
Tom McGonagle
9th Trystan Speedwell
Jason Michas
Pete Ziemak
Dennis Levesque
13th Damon Sobers
Joe Tucker
Chris Leal
Chris Uhlman