Fefilova-Styer Beats Benoit to Win Ultimate Pool Women's Shootout
The WPBA pro beat Ashley Benoit 7-2 for the $3,000 National Women's Shootout crown as league pool's biggest week opened in Cherokee.
Margaret Fefilova-Styer became the first champion crowned at the 2026 Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals on Monday, beating Ashley Benoit 7-2 in the National Women's Shootout final at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort in North Carolina.
The one-day, eight-player invitational — every match staged on the Brunswick TV table under the league's 30-minute match clock and 30-second shot clock — carried a $3,000 top prize. Benoit collected $1,000 as runner-up.
Fefilova-Styer barely troubled
The Belarusian-born pro, based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, gave up just six racks across three matches. She opened with a 7-1 quarter-final win over Emily Duddy, then beat Mary Talbot 5-3 in the semi-finals before pulling clear of Benoit in the race-to-7 title match, which wrapped up in the mid-afternoon window on the arena stream.
Fefilova-Styer arrived in form: last month she went undefeated to win the WPBA Borderline Brunswick/Pechauer Invitational in Bristol, Tennessee, a run that lifted her to No. 2 in the WPBA rankings. She is married to fellow professional Tyler Styer.
Benoit, from Dudley, Massachusetts — the reigning Kansas City women's champion and a two-time national mixed pairs winner — reached the final by beating Kennedy Meyman 6-1 and then holding off Sofia Mast 5-3.
Shootout results
| Round | Winner | Score | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter-final | Sofia Mast | 6-2 | Amy Beauchamp |
| Quarter-final | Ashley Benoit | 6-1 | Kennedy Meyman |
| Quarter-final | Mary Talbot | 5-2 | Jordan Helfery |
| Quarter-final | Margaret Fefilova-Styer | 7-1 | Emily Duddy |
| Semi-final | Ashley Benoit | 5-3 | Sofia Mast |
| Semi-final | Margaret Fefilova-Styer | 5-3 | Mary Talbot |
| Final | Margaret Fefilova-Styer | 7-2 | Ashley Benoit |
Day one around the hall
The shootout shared the opening day of league pool's biggest week — previewed here — with three larger competitions:
- 8-Ball Teams. The league championship, with $112,000 on the line for the champions, began its week-long program on Monday morning.
- National 8-Ball singles. A 128-player field opened its multi-stage format, with 64 bracket matches logged on day one.
- League Area Showdown. Thirty-two league areas were cut to the last eight through two daytime rounds. In evening quarter-final play on the TV table, Jacksonville beat Indianapolis Metro 5-2 and East Tennessee edged Salt Lake City 4-2 to book the first two semi-final places; East Texas vs Central Ohio and Northeast Indiana vs Atlanta North completed the last-eight card. The winning area banks $6,000.
Tuesday turns to the 10-Ball Teams championship and the headline 28-player National Shootout, which plays out across November 3-4 with every match on the streamed TV table.