Thea eyes return trip to nationals

Former CNMI junior tennis player Thea Minor is aiming for another stint in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 1 National Championships as she starts her sophomore season with the New Mexico Military Institute this fall.

Thea Minor, second left, joins her New Mexico Military Institute teammates and coach Dan O’Connell for a group photo during a break in their training session in Roswell, New Mexico. (Contributed Photo)

“My personal goal is to aim for the one and two positions (singles) and for the team to go back to the nationals with a stronger squad,” said Minor.

The 20-year-old player was one of the NMMI’s singles players last year and had a productive rookie season with the Broncos. She helped NMMI gain the No. 12 national rankings, allowing the Broncos to enter the nationals, which was held in Tucson, Arizona.

In the nationals, Minor made it to the quarterfinals of both the singles and doubles competitions. She teamed up with Fiji’s Lorraine Banimataku in the doubles event. Minor and company qualified to the nationals despite having the least number of players in the field. The Dan O’Connell-coached Broncos had only four players last season with the Federated States of Micronesia’s Amanda Hawkins and Papua New Guinea’s Lorish Puluspene completing the short-handed squad.

The Broncos will start the fall season with another depleted crew, but help is on the way in the spring.

“We will be expecting two more players from Ghana and Zimbabwe in the spring so I think we have a very good chance of making it to the nationals again,” said Minor, who has been joining the school’s cross country team in its training sessions to prepare for the upcoming season.

“When not playing tennis, the women’s team is training with the cross country squad to get fit,” the Saipan Southern High School graduate said.

She added that members of Broncos’ tennis squad have been engaged in challenge matches to determine who gets to play No. 1 and No. 2 in singles.

Meanwhile, Minor and her teammates are heading to Cahoon Park Tennis Courts in Roswell this weekend to compete in the Southeastern New Mexico Tournament set for Sept. 12 and 13. From Roswell, the group will travel to Hobbs to duel University of Southwest on Sept. 15, while the squad’s last tournament for this month will be the ITA Fall Regionals scheduled from Sept. 25 to 27 in Tyler, Texas.

Next month, the Broncos will play at home for the Gene Hardman Invitational, which is slated for Oct. 2 and 3. For their last two tournaments in October, O’Connell’s crew will play away matches in Plano Texas with the Broncos battling Henderson State first on Oct. 15 before participating in the Collin Country Invitational on Oct. 16 and 17.