CNMI players still stand out in Fiji

Tania Tan, seen here playing in a local tournament, suited up for the North Pacific Team’s girls U16 crew that won the team event in the 2016 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The CNMI-led North Pacific Team is the champion in the girls U16 team event of the 2016 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships.

The squad, bannered by back-to-back U16 singles champion Carol Lee and reinforced by fellow CNMI players Isabel Heras and Tania Tan, lifted the North Team to a 5-4 victory over the West Team last Monday in Lautoka, Fiji, and to an 8-0 triumph over the East Team yesterday.

Lee handed the North Team an easy victory in the first singles match when she swept Fiji’s Vienna Kumar, 6-0, 6-0. Lee later teamed up with Tan in another straight set win over Kumar and compatriot Ruby Coffin in the doubles, 7-6, (5), 7-5.

Heras played in the second singles in the pairing and although she lost to Coffin, she gave the North Team cushion after the match went to three sets. Heras won the opening set, 6-4, while Coffin took the last two, 6-2, 10-5. The Federated States of Micronesia’s Sunshine Palik was the fourth member of the North Team and she fell to Vanuatu’s Daisy Sipiti in the third singles game, 6-7 (4), 0-6.

After a close win over the West Team, the Lee-led North crew had an easier time versus the East players.

Lee got wins via walkovers in the singles and doubles (with Palik), while Heras was also awarded the victory via default in the second singles. Tan was the only player on the North Team to play yesterday and she routed Samoa’s Maanaima Tausi, 6-0, 6-0.

The North Team’s dominance in the girls U16 team event came after Lee clinched both the singles and doubles crown in Week 1 of the POJC. Lee bagged the singles championship after beating Kumar in the finals, 6-1, 6-2, while the former teamed up with Heras in sweeping Kumar and Coffin in the doubles title match, 6-2, 6-2.

Meanwhile, in other results, the North Team also won over the West yesterday in the boys U14 division, 6-3.

The CNMI’s Robbie Schorr and Ken Song gave the North two victories each. Schorr topped Fiji’s Kelese Kofe in the first singles match, 6-0, 6-0, while Song outlasted Vanuatu’s Warea Tigona in the second, 4-6, 7-5, 10-7. Song and Schorr then partnered in sweeping Fiji’s Avikash Kumar and Shantanu Shail, 6-1, 6-2. The Wets Team avoided a shutout when Vanuatu’s Samuel Strid won over the CNMI’s Sean Lee, 6-0, 6-0.

In the girls U14 division, the quartet of Asia Raulerson, Malika Miyawaki, Conatsu Kaga, and Maria Gregoire forced a 4-4 standoff against the West. Miyawaki defeated Kiribati’s Caroline Mwang in the second singles, 6-0, 6-3, while Kaga and Raulerson prevailed in the lone doubles tiff against Kiribati’s Rotuita Karatai and Vanuatu’s Desiree Signo, 6-3, 6-3. Raulerson played in the singles too and bowed to Vanuatu’s Rosalie Molballeh, 3-6, 2-6, while Gregoire lost the third singles match in the pairing agaist Signo, 2-6, 6-7 (6).

In last Monday’s results, the North Team’s boys U16 crew won over the West, 6-3, while the former dropped their matches in the girls, 4-5, and boys U12, 4-6.

Michael Ren handed the North Team a win in the second singles play when he defeated the Solomon Islands’ Graham Mani, 4-6, 6-3, 11-9. Vincent Tudela, on the other hand, played in the doubles with Guam’s Mason Caldwell and they swept Fiji’s Ravneel Chand and Vanuatu’s Marlin Hannam, 6-2, 6-2. Guam’s Camden Camacho topped Hannam in the third singles play, 6-1, 6-1, while Vanuatu’s Clement Mainguy gave the West its lone victory after a 6-1, 6-4 triumph versus Caldwell.