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Ouschan Wins Pacific Coast Classic
Oct 19, 2009, 9:30 AM

Ouschan survived a pair of hill-hill matches en route to the win.

It wasn't as easy as she would have liked, but Jasmin Ouschan wrapped up her weekend at the Pacific Coast Classic with the title.

Ouschan narrowly survived a pair of hill-hill matches earlier in the event, before stringing together a trio of close calls in the TV rounds. The Austrian edged Sarah Rousey, 9-8, to advance to the single-elimination round of 16, where she escaped an early exit with another 9-8 victory, this time over Kim Shaw.

Once in the shortened races for TV, Ouschan edged Line Kjorsvik and Allison Fisher by identical 7-4 counts. She then faced Xiaoting Pan in the final. Pan had her only close call of the tournament against Gerda Hofstatter in the quarterfinal round, pulling out a win in the case rack, 7-6.

In the final, the two traded games early on, both players unable to establish control of the table. With the match tied at five games apiece, Ouschan and Pan traded misses on the 8 ball, before Ouschan won a safety battle to climb on the hill. With Pan missing an attempt on the 4 ball in the next rack, Ouschan buried a 4-9 combination to win the Pacific Coast Classic.

With a win at the Great Lakes Classic, Ouschan has won multiple titles on the WPBA for the first time in her career. Also, she jumped up from No. 9 on the year-end points list to No. 4.

The WPBA will wrap up the 2009 Classic Tour at the Tour Championship, set for Nov. 11-15 at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Calif.