World famous Hard Times Billiards in Bellflower, CA was the venue for the most recent SCL9T event, Sept 18-19.   Attendance was lighter than normal with the US Amateur Qualifier drawing several ladies away from the SCL9T tournament, but there were still 26 ladies who came out to play.
 
Some notable names in the field were Tina Pawloski – winner of the inaugural SCL9T event in April, Melissa Morris – WPBA Exempt player, Stacy Novack – WPBA player, and Emilyn Callado – one of the top players from the WCWRT.
 
Melissa Morris came out strong on Saturday...never allowing an opponent to get past 3 games on her march to the winners-side quarter final.  By the end of play on Saturday, Melissa and 3 others – Jenny Lee, Stacy Novack and Hiroko Makiyama – were still undefeated.   And the 4 players who were still alive in the one-loss bracket were Lauren Ward, Emilyn Callado, Jauslinn Arnold, and Vicki Wade.
 
On Sunday, the matches resumed at noon…but missing one player from the one-loss bracket.  Unfortunately, Emilyn Callado had received a call from her family late Saturday night and had to return home to San Francisco to deal with a family crisis.  The other players were clearly disappointed for her and kept her and the whole Callado family in their thoughts for the day.
 
In the one-loss bracket, newcomer Jauslinn Arnold fro Bakersfield defeated Vicki Wade. Vicki had a big win on Saturday night over Tina Pawloski…so she was a little disappointed that she couldn’t keep the winning streak alive.  She finished tied for 7th/8th….an improvement over her 9th place finish at the Mr. Pockets event in April.
 
On the winners side, Stacy Novack defeated Hiroko Makiyama in a tight battle, while Melissa Morris continued her strong winning streak with a 7-3 win over Jenny Lee.  Then Stacy and Melissa battled it out for the hot seat…with Melissa emerging victorious…again with a 7-3 win.
 
While Melissa cooled her heels waiting for the finals…Jenny quickly and neatly disposed of Jauslinn, while Lauren and Hiroko fought a tooth-and-nail battle to decide who would stay and who would go home.  Once again, Lauren came out on top…extending her streak on the one-loss side to six straight matches won.  But her streak would end there as she was not so fortunate in her next match against Jenny in the one-loss semi-final bracket.
 
So…the one-loss finals was set…with Stacy Novack and Jenny Lee set to duke it out.  Both players were tired…but Stacy seemed to have a little bit more in the tank than Jenny.  She took advantages of several of Jenny’s errors to take an early lead…and she never looked back.  Jenny couldn’t seem to get things rolling…but was in good spirits throughout the match, often joking with the commentators and the live stream camera.
 
Stacy’s victory set her up for a rematch with Melissa Morris in the single race-to-9 finals.  Melissa’s long wait for an opponent seemed to have cost her some momentum, while Stacy was in cruise control from her previous two matches.  Both players had some terrific moments, but Stacy played a more consistent match and took the win and the cash with a 9-5 victory.
 
The SCL9T would like to thank our title sponsor, Tiger Products, for providing a brand-new Icebreaker cue to raffle…and for their support this year.  We would also like to thank our host venue, Hard Times…and our associate sponsor Pooldawg.
 
Photos of Frank the Pooldawg hanging with the players can be found in the gallery section of the SCL9T website.