Games resume today in Private School Volleyball

Middle school defending champion Seventh Day Adventist will host Saipan International School’s Blue Team in today’s resumption of games in the 2008 Coalition of Private Schools Volleyball League.

SDA and SIS-Blue also meet in the high school division starting at 3:30pm.

Five other games will be played in other venues. High school defending champion Grace Christian Academy will host SIS-Green, while Calvary Christian Academy will face Marianas Baptist Academy.

The other games in the Middle school division will be Mt. Carmel vs. Whispering Palms, SIS-Green vs. GCA and CCA vs. Saipan Community School.

Meanwhile, the opening match between GCA and MBA would be played tomorrow.

Explaining the rained out games on the opening day of competition, tournament committee chair Becky Covarrubias said the volleyball season occurs during the rainy season and none of the schools have no gym.

She said some courts dry faster than others and the weather is just unpredictable.

Whispering Palms played against SDA but the match lasted for about 30 minutes and the score was unavailable as of press time.

The Coalition of Private Schools Sports Association, or COPSSA, is a co-ed league with middle school and high school divisions.

If both competing schools have entries in the two divisions then the middle school game will always play at 3:30pm and the high school will follow 10 minutes after the end of the middle school match.

All matches are a best-of-three sets to win. If a school only has a middle school team or a high school team then the match will be played at 3:30pm.

Each school plays each opponent twice giving a chance to play away and at home.

Once the regular season ends, organizers will take the win/loss records of each school and seed each team in their respective divisions for the tournament.

The tournament runs for three days for one week. The middle school will play the week of Oct. 27 and the high school will play the week of Nov. 3. Both tournaments are single elimination.

There are four COPSSA committee members. Covarrubias (President), vice chair is Sean Maycock from SDA, Becca Newman from SIS (Secretary), and Vanesa Pritchard from Calvary (Treasurer).

Covarrubias used to coach the GCA volleyball team for a number of years but is technically not affiliated with any school.

She is now working at the Community Guidance Center as the Tobacco Quit Line Coordinator.