Maria Catalano
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Twenty-three players competed
for the Florida State Championship held at Capone’s Billiard Lounge
in Spring Hill, Florida, during the weekend of September 23-24,
2006. The Ladies Spirit Tour event was a qualifier for the WPBA 2007
US Open, sponsored by LTLUniverse.com. The event drew players from
as far away as Trinidad and England, as well as WPBA pros such as
Jeannie Seaver, Tracie Hines, Ellen Van Buren, and Gail Grecar, all
who wanted to vie for the State Champion title. These very capable
players all wanted to take home a piece of the $2150.00 prize fund,
which included $1000.00 added by Capone’s owner Rocky McElroy.
Eight players fought their way through the field to
return for more competition on Sunday. On the undefeated side, Maria
Catalano threw Nicolle Rasmussen to the other side with a 7-5 score,
and Debbie Schjodt sent Tracie Hines to work the other side of the
chart, also with a 7-5 score. On the one-loss side, Jeannie Seaver
tackled Stephanie Mitchell by 7-2 and Simone Hospedales ousted
Amanda Davidson 7-3.
New member Catalano had her eyes on the hotseat as
she handled Debbie Schjodt with a 7-3 score, sending her to the
one-loss side. Meanwhile, Seaver had no intentions of letting any
player get in her way and it was obvious by sending Tracie Hines and
Nicolle Rasmussen both home with 7-1 scores. This set up the match
between frequent points-leader Jeannie Seaver and the upcoming
threat Debbie Schjodt. However, Seaver would make certain that
Schjodt would not win her third qualifier this time, by finishing
the match with a 7-5 result.
In the final match, it looked as though Catalano
would make a quick win over Seaver when she started it off with a
couple of 9-ball combos, bringing the score to 3-1. However, Seaver
would not give up that easily, as she returned the score to an even
3-3. The two players continued to keep the score even, making the
spectators guess at who would claim the final point first.
Seaver was able to take lead for the first time in
the 9th game, at 5-4, when Catalano bobbled the 9-ball in
the corner. Seaver capitalized on the momentum and carefully
navigated around a messy table in the 10th game, in order
to bring the score to 6-4. The next game showed the players were
wearing down, and most of their misses were because of their own
mistakes in position play. With several snooker championship titles
under her belt, Catalano is not new to playing under stress. She
packed up her nerves, finished that mistake-ridden game to bring the
score 6-5. With determination, she broke and ran the next rack to
tie up the score 6-6. At this point, Catalano knew that she could
either win the final point and finish the tournament, or if she let
Seaver have a chance at it, then she’d be forced to play another
race to seven for the true double elimination.
In the 13th and final game, Seaver hooked
Catalano on the 2-ball in order to get ball-in-hand, but she fell to
a scratch after making the 2-ball. Catalano swiftly used that chance
to run the remainder of the rack and claim the Florida State
Championship and the WPBA Qualifier.
LTLUniverse.com results:
Complete Results:
1st Maria Catalano $700 + Qualifier
2nd Jeannie Seaver $440
3rd Debbie Schjodt $340
4th Nicolle Rasmussen $240
5th/6th Tracie Hines, Simone Hospedales $150
7th/8th Amanda Davidson, Stephanie Mitchell $65
9th/12th Kelly Coyle, Leslie Davis-Blaikie, Ashley Edens, Ellen Van
Buren
13th/16th Beth Amado, Heather Barkley, Roberta Case, Crystal
McCormick
17th/24th Libby Blake, Bonnie Coats, Lauren Galen, Gail Grecar,
Denise Khidirian, Mary Pendleton-Brown, Vaness Seaver
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