Junior netters shine on Guam

The CNMI’s top junior netters made waves in the 6th Super-Krete Guam Junior Tennis Championship held over the weekend at the Rick Ninete Tennis Center in Hagatna.

A delighted CNMI coach Jeff Race said in a phone interview yesterday that the team would be returning to home soil with eight titles today.

According to results provided by Race, the CNMI dominated the boys’ 18-and-under singles competition as both Tim Quan and Ralph Buenaventura got past the elimination round and forced an all-CNMI battle in the finals.

Quan, who also competed for the CNMI in the summer’s Palau South Pacific Mini Games, had the upper hand in the title bout, though, and breezed by his teammate, 8-3 for the championship.

It was the same story for the boys’ 14-and-under category as the CNMI’s Kent Kwah and Henry Yang both made impressive charges to reach the finals.

Kwah showed no signs of butterflies though as he claimed top honors with an 8-2 victory.

It was CNMI versus CNMI again in the boys’ 12-and-under courtesy of the solid play of Joe Motto Jr. and Christian Miller, with Motto edging his friend, 8-4, to bring home the bacon.

Motto also had success in the boys’ 12-and-under doubles as he and Woo Suk Chang had a fiesta in the finals to claim the championship with an easy 8-1 victory over Blaise Inman and Howard Clark.

For their part, Ji Hoon Heo and Keith Gabaldon took veterans Quan and Buenaventura to the limit before pulling off an incredible upset with an 8-7 victory in the boys’ 18-and-under doubles, with Heo serving for the match to get his team the win.

Kwah and Calvin Yang made it another CNMI sweep in the doubles by placing their shots well and pulling past Roman Duenas and Michael Tan, 8-3, in the 14-under division.

The CNMI also had a strong push in the female corner, taking home two awards.

Audrey Motto had a sensational stint as she was a part of both title charges, winning the girls’ 14-and-under singles and the girls’ 14-and-under doubles.

Motto went up against Terea Tapu of Guam in the singles finals and had just enough juice to pull out a nail-biting 8-7 victory.

She also joined forces with Vivian Lee to win the doubles against teammates Laila Mailman and Camryn Mosley, 8-4.

For her part, Mayuko Arriola teamed up with Tapu and reached the finals of the girls’ 18-and-under doubles. The team placed runner-up after dropping to Yumika and Auri Sugahara, 5-8.

The girls’ 18-and-under singles title was a battle between the Sugahara sisters, with Yumika taking the crown, 8-0.

“I think overall, it was another excellent effort for the second year in a row,” Race said. “It’s the second straight time that everybody who made the trip here won a medal, so that means that all 14 players we brought made it to the final of at least one event.”

Race also lauded Miller, who is only nine years old and made it to the finals of the 12-and-under category, as well as the Motto duo.

“Joe won two events and Audrey won two events, so it was very good…big weekend for the Motto family,” he said.

He added that this year’s performance was “on par with last year.”