Cyclones, Marianas Cup, soccer grab headlines

The Cyclones, the Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival, the Northern Mariana Islands Football (Soccer) Association grabbed the headlines in sports last week.

The finals of the SML Masters League was a roller coaster one for Cyclones, as the team completed a rough-and-tumble ride via a 16-15 nipping of archrival Typhoons that took two weekends to complete.

The game original started last Feb. 18 at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field with Typhoons strolling to an 11-0 lead going into the bottom of the third inning. The Cyclones finally reached base on the bottom of that inning and made a remarkable comeback to forge a 13-all deadlock before the match was suspended by rain.

When the finals was resumed a week later on Feb. 25, Typhoons again seemed headed for the win, registering two runs on the top of the eight, but the Cyclones would complete the come-from-behind victory with three runs of its own on the bottom of the eight to hoist the championship.

The weekend was also an eventful one for the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association as it hosted the Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival at the Pacific Islands Club sand courts.

With local beach volleyball stars partnering with pros of the AVP Tour, the action was intense and competitive all throughout with the team-ups of Phil Dalhausser and Jonathan Rosetti and Mikako Fujiwara and Yoko Mike topping the men’s and women’s finals, respectively.

Soccer also took the limelight with NMIFA holding its yearend tournament on the weekend and the early weekdays, as over 350 youth “futball” enthusiasts formed into teams and descended to the American Memorial Park to contest the different age group titles.

Cabalen-RP Construction/Transamerica and SIP-Flor A. Miranda also got some press, as the two teams advanced to the best-of-three finals of the Budweiser-Coca Cola UFO Inter-Organizational Basketball League.

The past week also saw the Saipan Swim Club hold its Heptathlon at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool, Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation host the final qualifier for the 6th Micronesian Games, high school Rocball and women’s softball enter their playoff rounds, and play in the MISA, government league, and IVYBL continue in different venues around the island.