Benoit comes from the loss side to down Miller and claim JPNEWT season finale title
It’s been an ongoing battle that’s stretched out over the past two years. As a prelude to it all, back in July of 2023, JPNEWT Tour Director, Briana Miller and Ashley Benoit came within a match of facing each other in the finals, twice, at a stop on the tour in Pelham, NH. They’d both […]
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Emily Duddy, Rachel Walters, Ashley Benoit and Briana Miller
It’s been an ongoing battle that’s stretched out over the past two years. As a prelude to it all, back in July of 2023, JPNEWT Tour Director, Briana Miller and Ashley Benoit came within a match of facing each other in the finals, twice, at a stop on the tour in Pelham, NH. They’d both made it to the winners’ side semifinals in that event, against different opponents. Miller advanced to the hot seat match and defeated Katie Bowse, who’d sent Benoit to the loss side. Benoit won two on the loss side before Bowse defeated her, again, in the semifinals.
Benoit appeared in only four of the 11 stops on the 2023 tour and finished at #15 in the season’s final tour standings. This year has been a different story. She’s appeared in seven of the 10 stops this year, including a victory at this past weekend’s (Sat., Dec. 7) JPNEWT season finale, the $3,000-added PA State Women’s 9-Ball Championships, which, in collaboration with PA ProAm Pool, drew 33 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia. She has finished the year at #2 in this season’s final tour standings.
Benoit and Miller have faced off against each other four times in a hot seat match this year and Miller has claimed the seat three times. They have split the top two prizes twice; in June, when Benoit, in a winners’ side semifinal, defeated Miller, who returned from the loss side to arrange the split, and the following month, when Benoit claimed the hot seat over Miller and split with her when she returned from the semifinal. In September, Miller claimed the hot seat and negotiated the split when Benoit returned from the semifinals.
Miller has won three of this year’s JPNEWT stops outright. Benoit has won two.
This past weekend, the bracket setup guaranteed that if they met, they would do so in the hot seat match. In races to 6, Benoit started out, over three matches, with an aggregate score of 18-5, downing Emily Duddy (2), Crystal Atkinson (1) and April Hatcher (2). This set her up in a winners’ side semifinal against Tina Malm. Miller, in the meantime, who opened with a 6-1 victory over Mindy Maialetti, faced a pair of almost-double-hill challenges (6-4) in her victories over Christine Pross and Rachel Walters, which set her up against Giovanna Napolitano in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Malm chalked up as many racks against Benoit as all of Benoit’s previous opponents (4), but it wasn’t enough, as Benoit advanced to the hot seat match. By the same score, Miller sent Napolitano west. Also by the same score, Miller claimed the hot seat.
Emily Duddy had followed her opening-round loss to Benoit with five straight loss-side wins; downing Jane Im and Christine Pross (both 5-3), shutting out Melissa Jenkins and defeating Nicole Nester and April Hatcher (both 5-2) to draw Napolitano. Malm picked up Walters, who’d followed her winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Miller with victories over Lai Li 5-3 and Marie Althouse 5-1.
Walters downed Malm 5-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals versus Duddy, who’d eliminated Napolitano 5-3. Walters defeated Duddy in those quarterfinals 5-3 and then, was shutout by Benoit in the semifinals.
They could have opted for their fourth split of the top two prizes, but it being the season finale of the 2024 JPNEWT Tour and given their 2024 match history – Benoit had yet to defeat Miller when she (Miller) occupied the hot seat – they decided to play a final match. They did, however, mutually agree to make it a race to 3, instead of what would otherwise have been to 6. Benoit won her first outright JPNEWT final match against Miller by shutting her out 3-0 and in addition to her top cash prize, claiming the ‘prize belt’ awarded to the PA State Women’s 9-Ball Champion.
The results left Miller at the top of the JPNEWT leaderboard, which made her the 2024 Tour Champion, with Benoit close on her heels. Rounding out the field of the tour’s top five in 2024 were Erica Testa, Joann Mason Parker, and Rachel Lang.
In her role as Tour Director, Miller and PA ProAm Pool’s Frank Maialetti, thanked the ownership and staff at Bluegrass Billiards, along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Kamui, Crossroad Cues, Trophy Smack, InTheBox Sportswear, Marty Magee’s Irish Pub, MagicBall Rack, FargoRate, digitalpool.com, Perceptive Lighting and Fast & Loose Designs.
