CNMI-led North Pacific tops East

Robbie Schorr eyes a backhand return during a local tournament this year at the Pacific Islands Club court. Schorr teamed up with Guam’s Camden Camacho and they won against Tahiti’s Hirinaki Lo and Jeremy Guines in the 2017 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships Team Event yesterday in Fiji. (Contributed Photo)

North Pacific defeated East Pacific, 5-3, at the continuation of the 2017 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships Team Event yesterday in Fiji.

North Pacific, which is reinforced by CNMI players and also had Federated States of Micronesia and Guam netters as members, won three of the four doubles games in the U16 age group to prevail in its duel against East Pacific and remain in contention for the division championship.

After Day 2 of the team event and completing the round-robin contest North Pacific earned a 9-7 record to lead idle West (4-4) and East (3-5). The West and East match will be played today and the results in the final pairing will determine the winner of the age group.

In the North-East tiff, the opposing teams split the four singles games to make their showdown interesting. East Pacific made it to the board first when Tahiti’s Jeremy Guines swept the CNMI’s Ken Song in opening singles game, 6-3, 6-3. Guam’s Camden Camacho then outlasted Samoa’s Kristen Pavitt, 0-6, 6-3, 10-7, to knot the count, while the CNMI’s Carol Lee put North Pacific in front following a 6-0, 6-4 triumph over Tahiti’s Naia Guitton in the first girls singles match. However, East Pacific refused to yield when Samoa’s Eleanor Schuster whipped the Commonwealth’s Grace Choi, 6-1, 6-1, to tie the pairing anew, 2-2.

With the North and East teams back to square one, the doubles matches turned out to be the deal breaker and the former delivered, sweeping the first three to put the game away.

The CNMI’s Robbie Schorr partnered with Camacho and they started North Pacific’s string of victories in the doubles play after topping the Tahiti duo of Hirinaki Lo and Guines, 6-3, 6-3. While the first doubles game was completed after only two sets, the second one wrapped up after three with the CNMI’s Vincent Tudela and FSM’s Joab Williams surviving the Cook Islands’ Elijah Amataiti and Pavitt. The CNMI-FSM pair labored a 7-5 triumph in the first set over Amataiti and Pavitt, who then forced a super-tiebreaker third set after dominating the second, 6-0. In the deciding set, Tudela and Williams proved to be the steadier pair as they eked out a 10-7 victory to lift North Pacific to a 4-2 advantage, going into the last two doubles matches.

In the third doubles game, Carol Lee teamed up anew with Malika Miyawaki and they sealed North Pacific’s win after beating Guitton and Schuster, 7-5, 6-2. East Pacific finally got a win in the doubles play when the Tongan pair of Peata Fatai and Brookie Maassi downed Guam’s Anika Sachdev and Joycelyn Tenai, 6-1, 6-0.

In other results, Jimin Woo and Sean Lee gave North Pacific a good start in the U14 division, but the squad could not sustain its momentum, allowing West Pacific to steal the victory, 6-2.

Woo handed North Pacific its first win when he outclassed New Caledonia’s Terence Winter, 6-2, 6-2. North Pacific then made it two in a row after Sean Lee stunned Vanuatu’s Maui Leflon, 7-5, 7-5. However, Sean’s victory was the last for North Pacific as West Pacific came out swinging and prevailed in the last six games.

New Caledonia’s Clara Cwajebaum dominated the CNMI’s Conatsu Kaga, 6-1, 6-0 to move West Pacific within one. Then the Solomon Islands’ Zorika Morgan duplicated Cwajebaum’s triumph when the former crushed Conatsu’s sister Coume in the other girls U14 singles match to force a 2-2 tie.

West Pacific went on to break the standoff right in the first doubles play when Tuvalu’s Kelese Kofe and Vanuatu’s Warea Tigona beat FSM’s Jerson Freddy and the CNMI’s Seung Jin Paik, 6-4, 6-2. West Pacific also took the other boys doubles game as Fiji’s Avikash Kumar and Leflon topped Guam’s Andrew Leng and Thomas Ysrael, 7-5, 6-2.

In the girls doubles, West Pacific had a sweep, too after the Solomon Islands’ Prudence Bird and Cwajebaum won over Guam’s Kaia Malkooti and FSM’s Ridianne Wolphagen, 6-4, 6-1, and the Solomon Islands pair of Morgan and Marion Goatee whipped the CNMI’s Maria Gregoire and FSM’s Anne Skilling, 6-0, 6-1.

Meanwhile, in the U12 division, East Pacific prevailed against West, 5-3, to secure the division championship. East Pacific wrapped up the round-robin team event with a 12-4 record, while West holds a 3-5 mark and North has a 1-7 slate. The North and West duel will be played today to determine the No. 2 finisher in the age group.