Terri Stovall goes undefeated to win 2025 Lady Luck Open in Dothan, AL
Janelle Rodabaugh, runner-up, wins eight, seven on the loss side, to face Stovall in final Pool tournaments are always won by the competitor who wins the last match and when that competitor has gone undefeated to claim an event title, he/she will have played the least number of matches among the tournament’s top finishers. […]
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Terri Stovall
Janelle Rodabaugh, runner-up, wins eight, seven on the loss side, to face Stovall in final
Pool tournaments are always won by the competitor who wins the last match and when that competitor has gone undefeated to claim an event title, he/she will have played the least number of matches among the tournament’s top finishers. Usually, the individual who has played the most matches has spent a lot of table time on the loss side of a bracket, which, by definition, indicates more time under ‘must win’ pressure than the competitor who’s gone undefeated to the hot seat.
This past weekend (March 15-16), at a $1,255-added Lady Luck Open (capped at an established 600 FargoRate) that drew 40 entrants to Mel’s Hideaway in Dothan, AL, Georgia’s Terri Stovall, chalking up her first (recorded with us) event victory, went undefeated through seven opponents to claim the title. Meanwhile, Janelle Rodabaugh secured her first entry into our AZBilliards’ database by playing 10 matches, winning eight of them (seven on the loss side) and finishing as the event’s runner-up.
Were it not for a double-hill match that she won in the third round, Stovall might have made it through the field with, racing to 5, an average racks-against total that was a couple of percentage points below 2. She opened her title quest with three straight 5-2 wins over Angie Lewis, Chris McClendon and Beth Whittington before moving into a winners’ side quarterfinal against Tara Williams, who’s been recording her cash-winning exploits with us (a lot of it in Texas tournaments) for 15 years.
Stovall survived the double-hill challenge to pick up Melissa Durkin in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Meanwhile, after winning an opening round 5-1 match versus Beth Shealy, Rodabaugh, by the same score, was sent to the loss side by Hannah Foster. Foster would advance to lose a double-hill battle against Jennifer Sweeney, who then drew Sarah Terry in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Both of the matches for advancement to the hot seat match went ‘almost’ double hill (5-3), but it was Stovall (over Durkin) and Terry (over Sweeney) who advanced. Stovall sent something of an ominous message to anyone who might be thinking of an eventual, later challenge by shutting Terry out to claim the hot seat.
One of the more likely (potential) challengers on the loss side, Williams, lost her first match on that side of the bracket to . . . guess who. Rodabaugh, in the third win (5-3) of her eventual seven-match winning streak. She advanced to down Betty Lea 5-2 and pick up the newly-arrived Sweeney. Durkin arrived to draw Jana Hoda, who’d lost her third-round match to Williams (double hill) and won four straight, to include the elimination of Hannah Foster 5-2 and Danielle Driscoll 5-3.
Like advancement to the hot seat match, the two battles for advancement to the quarterfinal, were the same; 5-2 wins for Rodabaugh (over Sweeney) and Durkin (over Hoda). As it turned out, just under half of the loss-side matches played (17 of 37) finished with a 5-2 score, including Rodabaugh’s two wins against Durkin in the quarterfinal and Terry in the semifinal.
The ‘odds,’ based on FargoRates, were in Stovall’s favor, 70% to 30%, and she proved them to be accurate. Stovall completed her undefeated run by finishing Rodabaugh’s equally impressive, seven-match, loss-side quest for the event title 5-2.
Tour director Brandi Fitzgerald thanked Todd and Melody Bland and their Mel’s Hideaway staff for their hospitality, along with sponsors SEPS Graphics, Dixie Amusement Co., Tiki O’s Sweets & Treats, Sweetsations by Tara, Sautercue LLC, Billiard Buddy, Precision, Panhandle Billiards, L.W. Hughes Farrier service, AK 24-7 Bail Bonding Company, North Florida Pool Tournaments, Casey Drywall, Pool Sharks 247, Pottery by Marcia, Jersey Girl Billiards and Big Tyme on the Road Show. Special thanks to Lynn Armstrong, Hannah Foster, Sam Moore, Cathy Turner, and Jason Money for help with prep, set up and errands.
Next up on the Pool Sharks 247 calendar will be its Saratoga Sunday – A Pool Tournament for All. ‘Saratoga’ is a pool format that is an 8-ball/9-ball hybrid that emanates from a 13-ball rack. Once that rack has been broken, players will choose high balls or low balls and then, have to sink their chosen balls in ascending order (like 9-ball), until one of them drops the game-winning 8-ball. The event is scheduled for March 23 at Mel’s Hideaway.
