Kostanian Earns First Hunter Classics Victory

by Cathy Vanover

The Hunter Classics Tour rolled into Albuquerque, NM, o­n March 19-20, bringing 20 sharp-shooting ladies with it.  Corner Pocket, which hosted the tour's second stop of the year, saw twelve Texas players corner the field, but it was 17-year-old Anna Kostanian that took home her first tour win.

Kostanian, a local favorite, played more like a veteran, earning definitive wins over Angie Scott, Susan Wilber, Krystia Sparks, and Heather Pulford, before sending Leslie Ann Rogers to the o­ne-loss with a 7-2 in the hot seat match.Rogers had to get by another local player, April Davis, in the semifinals to get another chance at Kostanian in the finals.  Rogers did to Davis what she had been doing all tournament long before she was upset by Kostanian-dominating her opponents.  In her first four matches, she earned two shutout wins and two 7-3 victories.  After a third 7-0 score, this time over Davis, Rogers took her game back to the finals to face Kostanian.

The stage was set for the exciting final match between o­ne of Texas' best semi-professional pool players and the confident, sharp-shooting young Albuquerque local.  And it didn't take long to see that both Rogers and Kostanian would put together a tough conclusion to the tour stop.

After Kostanian took the first game, Roger countered with a 2-9 combo to tie up the match, and she followed that up with a run out to gain the lead at 2-1.  Two games later, Kostanian had regained the lead, but Rogers again bounced back to knot the score.  Kostanian managed to take the following game, but in Game 8, she tried to extend her lead with a tough 7-9 combo try instead of playing safe.  The missed combo opened up the same attempt for Rogers, and she nailed it to again tie up the match at 4-all. 

The two traded the next few games, with Kostanian reaching the hill first with a 6-5 lead.  In the next game, Kostanian scratched o­n the break, giving Rogers ball-in-hand and a chance to put the match at hill-hill.  Rogers controlled the table up to the 7 ball, and a kick shot attempt missed the object ball, which gave Kostanian easy position to run out for her first Hunter Classics Tour victory.

Results:

1st Anna Kostanian $750

2nd Leslie Ann Rogers $550

3rd April Davis $350

4th Heather Pulford $250

5th Julie Stephensen, Rachel Hurst $150

7th Susan Wilbur, Miriam Martinez $75

9th Marissa Hallet, Kathy Keifer, Tara McCracken, Kat Asbury $50

(Photo Courtesy of Cathy Vanover)

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the Hunter Classics Amateur Ladies 9-Ball Tour.