Strong showing for CNMI netters

The CNMI-led North Pacific Team may have missed the overall title in the 2011 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji, but the Commonwealth netters still proved to be the strongest in the region.

“If you look at the POJC Top 4 singles finishes from each division, you will see that the CNMI has perhaps the strongest juniors players in the Pacific,” CNMI coach Jeff Race said when asked to assess the team’s performance in Fiji about two weeks ago.

Race was talking of the six CNMI players who made it to the Top 4 of the U12, U15, and U18 divisions. Tammy Ackerman gave the Commonwealth its best finish in the POJC after topping the U12 girls singles. Negahr Rastguiy finished second in the same age group, while Carl Dela Cruz placed third in the boys U12. In the U15 division, Christian Miller was the runner-up, while Mikayla Lopez ended up in fourth. Rafael Jones also finished fourth in the boys U18.

“We did very well in POJC. We had the most number of players who finished in the Top 4 in the singles competition,” Race said.

Powerhouse Fiji had only four players making it to the Top 4, Tahiti had three, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and New Caledonia had two each, and Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Cook Islands, and American Samoa had one apiece.

“We were on top of our game and this only motivates our players to keep improving their skills every year. We had a strong U12 team and some of them will move up to U15 and that is good news. Our incoming U12 players are also tough, so we are positive about our chances next year. We will play better every year,” Race added.

Besides placing in the Top 4 in the singles competition of the POJC, the CNMI netters also proved their worth in the doubles. Rastguiy teamed up with Palau’s Ayana Reggiil and they won the U12 doubles gold, while Miller and Jake Lee took the U15 doubles title.

The Commonwealth also collected three silver medals in doubles, courtesy of Jones (with Emil Penafiel) in the U18, Lopez and Johnson (U15), and Dela Cruz and Moris Villanueva and one bronze from Thea Minor (in U18 with Vanuatu’s Lorraine Banimatoku). Ackerman and Dela Cruz gave the CNMI two more silver medals when they placed runners-up in the juniors division of the Oceania Plate.

“Tammy was the most outstanding player on the CNMI Team this year. Negahr also did very well, losing only to Tammy. With their strong performance, they might get an invite to compete in another off-island tournament at the end of this year,” Race said.