Pamela Cimarelli Sweeps a Strong Field in the JPNEWT on Memorial Day Weekend, With Rhio Anne Flores taking the Qualifer

By NYC Grind Contributor, “The Other” Alison Fischer

On Saturday, May 23rd, a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in East Rutherford, NJ, the ladies of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour could be found heating up Castle Billiards with what is no doubt some of the best women’s pool in the Northeast.  

While many people were out enjoying the holiday, 39 of the toughest players from across the region showed their dedication to the game, and turned out to vie for a WPBA qualifier, including Megan Smith (formerly Minerich), Holly Sholes, Pamela Cimarelli (formerly Treadway) My-Hanh Lac, and 13-year-old phenom Briana Miller. 

To follow up her 2nd place performance at the Primetime Billiards stop, Pamela Cimarelli, who is sponsored by Hot Shot Billiards in Deptford, NJ, dominated this very strong field of players, running undefeated through the weekend, to claim the title.

There were numerous hard-fought battles throughout this event, and nearly as many upsets from some young breakthrough players.  For one, Rhio Anne Flores (Jersey City, NJ) had a standout performance, defeating Maryann Giambanis (7-1), Sharon O’Hanlon (7-1), and taking a strong 7-3 victory over My-Hanh Lac.  

In the following round, Rhio would fall to Megan Smith (7-4), only to come back to beat Holly Sholes (7-5) on the one-loss side, which landed her the WPBA entry.  However, Rhio was then ousted by My-Hanh Lac in a one-sided 7-2 match.  Ms. Flores, who is currently ranked #8 on the tour, is not only making her mark in the ladies’ arena, but also holds the #5 spot in the C+ class on the Tri-State Tour.

On the other side of the bracket, up-and-comer Borana Andoni ran through Janice Larocca (7-2), Sherry Pouncey (7-4), Liz Persiano (7-3), to then upset Erica Testa in a hill-hill trial by fire.  However, on day 2, Borana fought tooth-and-nail against the firepower of Pamela Cimarelli, who closed out the set 7-5. 

However, outside of the upstarts, some of the JPNEWT’s strongholds were making their mark as well.  Megan Smith came through the winner’s bracket in true grinding fashion, with wins over Melissa Jenkins (7-5), Holly Sholes (7-6), Linda Shea (7-6), and Rhio Anne Flores (7-4).

This run would land her in the finals of the winner’s bracket against Pamela Cimarelli.  In this match, Pamela would keep an edge over Megan, who stayed hot on her trail.  With the score 6-5, Megan lost the chance to go hil-hill after a fatal miscue, and Pamela took the game along with the match.

One the one-loss side, a number of other strong players battled it out to see who would come back to compete on Sunday, Day 2 of this rigorous event.

Sunday Morning’s Matchups:

My-Hanh Lac over Leslie Furr (7-3)

Briana Miller over Linda Shea (7-5)

Holly Sholes over Erica Testa (7-1)

Katie Cowan over Supadra Boonparsook (7-4)

Following that round, My-Hanh Lac then went on to defeat 13-year-old Briana Miller, in a match that swung back and forth, with the match staying locked at 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4, but My-Hanh pulled away to win 7-5.  Holly Sholes also dominated over Katie Cowan of Charlotte, NC with a 7-2 win. However Katie had a strong performance in this event, winning 5 matches on the one-loss side after a 2nd round loss to Erica Testa.

In the next round, coming off a winner’s side loss, Rhio Flores knocked out Holly in a match that Holly came out leading 2-0. However, Rhio would capitalize on Holly’s mistakes in this hard-fought match, to win 7-5, and claim the qualifier. My-Hanh Lac would also eliminate Borana Andoni (7-1) after her loss to Pamela Cimarelli.

After a one-sided 7-2 win over Rhio, My-Hanh would match up with Megan Smith for the semi-final.  Both ladies had been playing strong throughout the event, but Megan stormed ahead 5-2 in this match, and with My-Hanh ending up hooked, a few times, Megan kept control of the match to win 7-5.

The Finals:

The final was a rematch between the undefeated Pamela Cimarelli & Megan Smith.  The format was a race to 7/9–since Pam was undefeated, if she got to 7 first, she would win the match, but if Megan got to 7 first, they would go to 9 games.

When the score was tied at 2-2, Pamela pulled away to lead the match 4-2, and was looking confident.  This was a defining point in the match, as after the players exchanged safeties, Megan made a thin-cut 3 ball while leaning over the 5-ball.  This slightly moved the 5, and the cue ball came around 2 rails to pocket it, meaning the shot was interfered with, giving Pamela ball-in-hand, to lead 5-2.

But Smith was not going down without a fight, breaking and running out twice and making the most of Cimarelli’s errors, to tie at 6-6.  In the following game, Megan starts out with a safe on the 1 ball and gets ball in hand, but can’t get a shot at the 2. They exchange safeties, but after Pamela makes the 2, the 3 ball is still tied up.  Pam misses the safe, and Megan comes back with a lock-up safe on the 4, forcing her to foul.  While it looks like smooth sailing for Smith, she ends up with a long shot on the 8 and misses, to turn the match over to Cimarelli.

Both of these top players had an impressive weekend, and although Pamela commented that felt like she did not play her best, it was clear that she was the force to be reckoned with at this event.

Congratulations to all the ladies who came out to Castle to compete!

The next stop on the JPNEWT will be held at Primetime Sports Bar & Grill, in Sayreville, NJ, July 18-19, so make sure to come out to support these talented players.

 

1st    $750    Pamela Cimarelli

2nd   $475   Megan Smith

3rd   $350   My-Hanh Lac

4th  $250    Rhio Anne Flores

5-6th  $150   Holly Sholes, Borana Andoni

7-8th  $115    Briana Miller, Katie Cowan

9-12th  $75    Linda Shea, Leslie Furr, Erica Testa, Supadra Boonparsook