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Mister-Nelson earn beach nod
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Posted on Feb 07 2006
The tandem of Tyce Mister and Chris Nelson secured the right to represent the CNMI in the 2006 Micronesian Games on the local sand courts after emerging from a fiercesome foursome during the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association’s final qualification tournament on Sunday afternoon at the Pacific Islands Club.
Mister-Nelson defeated Dan Westphal and Nick Castro in the final round of the invitation-only affair with a resounding 21-15 victory on the San Antonio sand to complete their sudden return to the CNMI spotlight.
The champs made their first advance at the finals with a win over 21-12 win over Kaycee Rengaelur and Quincy Johnson, and followed with a convincing 21-11 win over the favored combo of Marino Pungilug and Jess Palacios to earn a seat in the finals.
Many involved with the local beachside scene thought that Pungilug-Palacios was the team to beat through the first three rounds of the open qualifying. After they posted a less than impressive showing two weeks ago in the fourth tournament, some began to wonder if the duo had fell out of their rhythm by playing with a number of other partners.
Westphal-Castro remained under the radar throughout the qualifying process—advancing through the ranks with a mark of consistency. On Sunday, the pair was knocked to the losers’ bracket in the first round when Pungilug-Palacios escaped with a narrow 22-20 win.
Facing elimination with the next loss, Westphal-Castro regained focus to send Rengaelur-Johnson packing with a 21-19 victory. From there, the duo got revenge over Pungilug-Palacios in a 23-21 thriller that went deep into extra points to advance to the final.
While Mister-Nelson will take the sand this summer for the CNMI, Castro will be waiting in the wings after he was named the alternate.
Now that the men’s team has been decided, all that remains is NMIVA’s final best-of-three competition between Peterka-Kennedy and Halaby-Guzman to ultimately decide who will march behind the latte stone, star, and mwarmwar this summer for the women. The action returns to the PIC tonight at 5:30pm.
