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Race also names NPQ team
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Posted on May 01 2006
Fourteen players were named yesterday to the CNMI team for the North Pacific Qualifying Tennis Tournament set from June 14 to 18 on Guam.
CNMI national tennis coach and Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association vice president Jeff Race said the seven boys and seven girls named to the team will play in the two reconstituted age groups set recently by the Oceania Tennis Association and the world governing body for the sport, the International Tennis Federation.
Leading the CNMI’s push in the boys’ 18-and-under division are Ralph Buenaventura, Ji Hoon Heo, Nicolas Son, and Keith Gabaldon.
Four of the five women national players picked for the 6th Micronesian Games, meanwhile, will see action as Mayuko Arriola, Vivien Lee, Lila Mailman, and Audrey Motto represent the CNMI’s best hopes in the girls’ 18-and-under division.
Both the boys’ and girls’ 13-and-under category will be made up of three players apiece with Tinian’s Benjie Decena, James Camacho, and Joe Mottor Jr. spearheading the boys team and Thea Minor, Jessica Soll, and Melody Johnson completing the cast for the girls.
Race said he likes the CNMI’s chances for the NPQ, as he will be bringing along a talented and experienced group of netters to the competition in Guam.
He, however, said that the team’s chances of duplicating last year’s breakthrough victory is now 50-50 at best since Buenaventura and Gabaldon are still not sure of making the trip because of their expected college enrollments.
However, Race said even without the two, Heo and Son are still quite capable of taking on what the rest of the region can offer in terms of tennis talent in the boys’ 18-and-under division.
He also said outside of Manila, Philippines-trained Michelle Pang, which may no longer be eligible this year as she may have turned 19, the field is wide open in the girls’ 18-and-under group.
Race, meanwhile, said that his 13-and-under team maybe young but said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the likes of Decena and Minor pull off upsets in the tournament.
The Commonwealth had a swashbuckling performance in the 2005 NPQ in Guam, taking all but two of the eight slots for the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Lautoka, Fiji.
