Ranola Victorious at Comet Billiards

Ranola Victorious at Comet Billiards
J. Pechauer NorthEast Women’s Tour / Parsippany, NJ
by Skip Maloney
Though pushed to the brink of elimination in an extended finals format, Iris Ranola came from behind and won the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour stop the weekend of June 21-22. The $1,500-added event, plus qualification to an upcoming Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) event, was hosted by Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ, and drew 32 entrants.
Ranola and Linda Shea sent Asia Cycak and Brenda Heras to the one-loss side of the bracket and turned to face each other in the hot seat match. This ended when Ranola surged past Shea, then leading 5-4, and won the next three racks, sending Shea to the semifinals.
On the one-loss side, Nelson and Emily Duddy advanced into the tournament’s final six slots with identical 7-2 victories over Zinnie Panju and Briana Miller. Duddy’s victory sent Miller home from the tournament, possibly to complete any sixth-grade homework that the 12-year-old might have shelved to allow her to compete. Miller will be going to the Junior Nationals next month in Tucson, AZ.
Nelson and Duddy then faced Heras and Cycak, just over from the winners’ side. Nelson advanced, but Duddy fell to Cycak. Nelson dropped Cycak into fourth place with a 7-5 victory and faced Shea in the semifinals, whom she defeated by the same score.
In the extended finals format, which extended the match to 9 games if Nelson reached 7 wins before Ranola, the two struggled back and forth to a 4-4 tie before Nelson surged ahead to 7, forcing the extension. Ranola fought back to tie it at 7. Though Nelson won the following game to reach hill first, Ranola closed it out by winning the final two racks.
Results:
1st Iris Ranola
2nd Tiffany Nelson
3rd Linda Shea
4th Asia Cycak
5th Emily Duddy
Brenda Heras
7th Briana Miller
Zinnie Panju
9th Morgan Steinman
Gina Lipsky
Erica Tester
Supadra Boonpasok