{"id":4130,"date":"2011-09-27T16:16:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T23:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=4258"},"modified":"2011-09-27T18:19:48","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T01:19:48","slug":"peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Peterson team scores at pool nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Geri Peterson competing in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy Geri Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nGeri Peterson plays pool. She plays pool extremely well. <\/p>\n

In 2007, the local Fairway Market employee qualified for the American Poolplayers Association (APA) U.S. Amateur Championships in Atlanta. Idyllwild businesses and residents anteed up to help defray the costs of her trip. <\/p>\n

This year, Peterson\u2019s team of eight women finished fifth out of 69 national qualifying teams at the APA 2011 Ladies 8-Ball National Championships at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.
\n

\"\"
Geri Peterson. Photo by Marshall Smith <\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cNo Riverside County team has ever finished this high before,\u201d said Peterson, who captained the team. \u201cThe competition is kind of like the Super Bowl of pool.\u201d The highest previous finish for a Riverside County team (both women\u2019s and open categories, which includes men) was 65th place, Peterson noted.<\/p>\n

Now Peterson and her team are doing victory laps throughout the county. \u201cWe\u2019ve also started our quest for next year\u2019s nationals,\u201d said Peterson, who remembered the first time she took a women\u2019s team to Vegas in 2004. \u201cIt was Vegas,\u201d said Peterson, \u201cit\u2019s a party town and we partied.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a disappointing finish in 2004, Peterson resolved to make certain 2011 would be different. \u201cWe had team meetings prior to each day of play to keep the team focused,\u201d she said. The change in team tactics paid off. Peterson said each day of the three-day competition was grueling, typically with three matches lasting an average of three hours each. \u201cWe\u2019d start at 11 a.m. with the first round of five games,\u201d she said. \u201cWhoever was the first to win three would move on. We\u2019d finish the third match at 1 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several days of play, the match before the quarterfinal came down to a sudden death 8-ball playoff. Only one member from each team competes. Peterson\u2019s team member, Rita Tillson, and her opponent kept trying to put the eightball in the pocket. \u201cIt was grueling,\u201d said Peterson. \u201cI was sick to my stomach watching, but Rita prevailed. Then, because the sudden death had gone on so long [an hour over the three hour normal match time], we had only 15 minutes before we had to play in the quarterfinal. We lost the first game, won the second, and then lost the next two, taking us out of the competition. We had played nonstop throughout the tournament, were undefeated until the quarterfinal and placed fifth nationally. We\u2019re very happy with our finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

With almost no break on returning from the Las Vegas team nationals, Peterson launched into individual competition qualifying rounds for the APA 2011 Amateur Championships to be held in Tampa, Fla., in November. The night before Saturday play was to begin at Stix Billiards in Rancho Cucamonga, while staying overnight in the area, Peterson opened her cue case to find that someone had either mistakenly or purposely replaced her cues with others where she had played the previous night. Frantic calls to the prior venue yielded results. And, just before she had to play on Saturday, friends managed to bring two of Peterson\u2019s three cues to her. Peterson steadied herself and began to play, making it to the semi-finals before loosing. \u201cHad I won that last game, I would have again gone to the U.S. Amateur Championships,\u201d she said. \u201cIt [playing in major competitions] is all a learning curve.\u201d <\/p>\n

Peterson is a committed competitor. She is already fixed on her next goal \u2014 winning next year\u2019s team competition in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geri Peterson plays pool. She plays pool extremely well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[20],"yoast_head":"\nPeterson team scores at pool nationals • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/geri-3.jpg\",\"width\":\"500\",\"height\":\"382\",\"caption\":\"Geri Peterson competing in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy Geri Peterson\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/\",\"name\":\"Peterson team scores at pool nationals • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-27T23:16:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-28T01:19:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/09\/27\/peterson-team-scores-at-pool-nationals\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\",\"name\":\"Marshall Smith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f832ebbb90c77ae40e932b1b868a8db?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marshall Smith\"},\"description\":\"Marshall Smith has been writing for the Town Crier since 2005. His favorite quote is: '\\\"Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.\\\" Robert Kennedy quoting George Bernard Shaw\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4133,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130\/revisions\/4133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}