Allison Fisher Wins Great Lakes Classic
by InsidePOOL Staff
Allison Fisher has wrapped up another win at the WPBA (Women’s Professinal billiard Association) Great Lakes Classic, scoring a 7-4 victory over Kelly Fisher in the finals.
In the first semifinal match, K. Fisher met with Sarah Ellerby. Both former snooker pros from the U.K., the players traded the first four racks in the shortened race to 7. Fisher took the lead in the next rack after a safety exchange over the 3 ball. They traded the next two games, and then Fisher took a two-point lead after a dry break by Ellerby, making it 5-3. However, Ellerby parried, taking the next two after a couple of errors on Fisher’s part. Fisher broke and ran out to reach the hill, and Ellerby countered by pocketing two balls on the next rack. Unfortunately for Ellerby, she rattled the 9 ball, and it was all over at that point, as Fisher pocketed the 9 and the 7-5 win.
A. Fisher met with Karen Corr in the second semifinals, and when Corr came up empty on her first break, Fisher cleared the table to take the first rack. The score seesawed to 2-all, at which point Fisher surged ahead to go up 5-2, capitalizing on a few errors by Corr. Undaunted, Corr took the next two racks with the help of a long-rail bank shot. But she missed a key 2-9 combo in the following game, and Fisher took the hill 6-4. Corr came up dry on her last break, and Fisher dished up to win 7-4.
K. Fisher instantly took a 2-0 lead in the finals, but A. Fisher was quick to retaliate and tie things up. Mistakes by both gave each multiple chances, and soon the score rested at 4 apiece. An excellent safety by A. Fisher behind the 8 ball saw her earn ball in hand, and she cleaned the table to take a one-rack advantage. She also broke next and, pocketing two balls, had little trouble running out to reach the hill. K. Fisher broke and made two balls next but rattled her first shot, the 1 ball. Though she got a bit out of line for the 6 ball, A. Fisher had little troubles potting the balls and taking back the Great Lakes Classic title.
Corr has jumped back up to number two in the WPBA rankings, surpassing both Ga Young Kim and Xiaoting Pan, while Anna Kostanian, who came in fifth place, is now ranked sixth.
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Results:
1st Allison Fisher
2nd Kelly Fisher
3rd Karen Corr
Sarah Ellerby
5th Anna Kostanian
Jeanette Lee
Xiaoting Pan
Monica Webb
9th Jennifer Chen
Ga Young Kim
Vivian Villareal
Sarah Rousey
Dawn Hopkins
Megan Minerich
Yu Ram Cha
Tiffany Nelson

Four Remain in Great Lakes Classic
by InsidePOOL Staff
The final four are set at the WPBA Great Lakes Classic, hosted by the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN. Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, Kelly Fisher, and Sarah Ellerby are the last women standing and will pair off Sunday in the semifinals.
It was Kelly Fisher who dashed the hopes of defending champion Xiaoting Pan. After Fisher bested Vivian Villareal and Pan ousted Sarah Rousey, both 9-7, in the round of 16, they moved on to play each other. Theirs was a brutal, double-hill match that saw Fisher advance to the semifinals.
Fisher’s opponent will be Sarah Ellerby, another English snooker player. Ellerby bested Jennifer Chen 9-3 in the third round, only to have to play her again in the next. This time it wasn’t so easy for Ellerby, but she prevailed 9-7. She then eliminated Monica Webb from the event with a 9-7 victory to move on to face Fisher.
Corr’s event began with a forfeit by her first-round opponent and has gone without a hitch so far. She ousted Dawn Hopkins 9-4 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she faced down Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee 9-5. Lee had just come off a hill-hill victory over Yu Ram Cha in the previous round.
Number-one-ranked Allison Fisher, Corr’s opponent in the semifinals, first faced Tiffany Nelson in the round of 16 and won 9-5 and then went on to play Anna Kostanian in the quarterfinals. Kostanian had eliminated Fisher from the GenerationPool.com 9-ball Championships into fifth place only a few weeks before. This time, though, Fisher took control and advanced with a crushing 9-1 win.
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Top Eight WPBA Winners Winnowed
by InsidePOOL Staff
The top eight remaining ladies in the Women’s Professional billiard Association (WPBA) Great Lakes Classic have been revealed. This event, hosted by the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN, will reduce its field further to the final four by the end of Saturday, with two semifinal matches and one final match to be played Sunday.
Defending champ Xiaoting Pan remains unscathed, having come through her third-round match with Monica Webb the 9-5 victor. Constants Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, and Ga Young Kim are also still undefeated. Fisher bested Vivian “The Texas Tornado” Villareal 9-7, Corr bested Helena Thornfeldt, and Kim came out ahead in her double-hill match with Sarah Rousey.
GenerationPool.com semifinalist Anna Kostanian (pictured) is still going strong, having defeated Dawn Hopkins in the third round. Rounding out the top eight are Kelly Fisher, Jeanette Lee, and Sarah Ellerby.
Sixteen players are still battling it out in the one-loss side. After her first-round loss to Yu Ram Cha, Austrian Jasmin Ouschan slugged it out through three opponents to end up facing Webb for the right to advance to the final eight. Gerda Hofstatter, another Austrian, lost in the last round to Lee 9-5 and now faces Megan Minerich. Also still in contention are Cha, Thornfeldt, Joanne Ashton, Hopkins, Janet Atwell, Villareal, Kim Shaw, Rousey, Kim White, Jennifer Chen, Tiffany Nelson, and Debbie Schjodt.
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Pan Determined to Defend Great Lakes Title
by InsidePOOL Staff

The Women’s Professional billiard Association (WPBA) kicked off their Great Lakes Classic event, right on the heels of the GenerationPool.com 9-ball Championships in Charlotte, NC, two weeks ago. This tournament, the third stop on their 2008 calendar, is being hosted by the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN, and will conclude June 29.

Xiaoting Pan, who won the women’s division at the GenerationPool.com event, will be looking to defend her title at this event as well. And so far, so good. Her first-round match with Line Kjorsvik she won 9-7, and then she went on to handily defeat Tina Larsen 9-2. Pan’s next match will be against Monica Webb.

Third-place finisher at the GenerationPool.com tournament, Anna Kostanian is also doing well so far. She dusted Megan Minerich 9-3 in the first round and then sent Ewa Laurance to the one-loss side with a 9-5 victory and will next play Dawn Hopkins.

Karen Corr and Allison Fisher, both of whom finished in fifth place in Charlotte, are both in the winners’ side of the bracket still. Corr started off with a surprising forfeit from Laura Lindauer and then a 9-4 win over Caroline Pao. Fisher only allowed three games between her first two matches, defeating first Leanne Amable 9-1 and then Melissa Little 9-2.

Ga Young Kim, runner-up to Pan in Charlotte, also remains on the winners’ side, having gone through Sueyen Rhee 9-4 and Melissa Herndon by the same score in her usual rapid time. Surprisingly, though, Jasmin Ouschan suffered a first-round loss, going hill-hill with Yu Ram Cha and ending up on the left side of the bracket.

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WPBA to Keep Stats on Players
Player Scorecards for each Match will Provide Valuable Statistical Information
Thousand Oaks, CA – The Women’s Professional billiards Association’s (WPBA’s) 2008 Season marks the first full year that its players will use scorecards to produce accurate stats of their matches and tournaments. First used at the 2007 WPBA Tour Championships, the new scorecards include information such as lags won, balls on break, break and runs as well as games won on break. The 2008 San Diego Classic introduced players to the new scorecards and each player kept track of the stats for their match.
Kristi Carter – WPBA Board Member and the person responsible for collating the stats from each tournament, feels the benefit to the players is immeasurable, “To be considered an upper-echelon sport, statistics need to be kept that are in depth and reliable. They are a major component to getting mainstream media coverage and it is a goal to position the WPBA as a viable and recognized professional sport. As players and fans, you will have the opportunity to track individual players’ performances, see how they pair against other players, and where they stand overall under various categories.”
WPBA Top Pro and veteran match Commentator Dawn Hopkins (pictured) feels strongly about stats, saying “As a commentator for WPBA/ESPN shows, having statistics is going to help me tremendously. These facts will enable me to compare the players in different areas of their game.”
Actor and long-time WPBA Commentator Mitch Laurance states, “I’ve never been able to look to the statistics of players on the WPBA Classic Tour as a particular event week progressed; until now.
What a terrific feature this will be, to have access to the kind of sports-related stats that mean so much when evaluating a player’s performance during the heat of competition. The ability to analyze key stats throughout the event will help to further break down what makes different players successful, and I’m sure will prove an invaluable aid to telling the full story of any given Tour stop.
Top WPBA veteran Pro Belinda Calhoun had this to say when asked. “Statistics have been so sorely missed in women’s pool. What do all major sports have in common? Stats, stats, and more stats. Sports fans love statistics. It is a way for them to become personally involved. The more stats you can memorize and quote the higher the status you enjoy. The current score/stat sheet is a solid beginning for future plans to expand the stat program.”

The WPBA will post stats from T.V. matches at each event, as well as track and post all our players’ statistics. Check back to www.wpba.com (http://www.wpba.com/) after each event for stat updates.

Media contact: Anne Craig