Whispering Palms sweeps finals

The Whispering Palms School Terns won back-to-back sets over Saipan Community School yesterday afternoon to take the Private Schools Indoor Volleyball League Junior Varsity championship at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Cheers echoed off the walls as the packed house reacted to every ball that hit the rubberized Ada floor and the rumble turned into a roar when the Terns capped their season to remember by taking the title.

“It was great. I had a great time. They played well. It feels good. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I think I want to do it again,” said Terns coach Pam Thorpe.

Whispering Palms principal Tom Weindl was offering words of wisdom from the sidelines during the contest and had nothing but praise for his students’ efforts during the season and in the championship.

“I think they richly deserve it. I think they’re really outstanding scholar athletes. They’re outstanding in the classroom and we’ve had a really good year athletically as well. Academics is No. 1 for us but they’re just so active physically. I’m just really proud of them. They did a wonderful job. They worked together as a team. They had a tremendous amount of spirit and a tremendous amount of spirit when it counted,” he said.

The teams battled neck and neck in the first set and while the score was close early on, Whispering Palms took a commanding 21-9 lead soon thereafter. Despite the enormous deficit, Michelle Hammons’ crew never gave up as SCS rallied to close the gap to 23-17 on the strength of Ji Young Yang’s nearly unreturnable underhand serve.

Thorpe called timeout to rally the troops and her strategy worked as the Terns closed out the opening set with a 25-18 win.

There was more of the same intensity in the second set as the teams were locked up at 8-8 early on, but the Terns turned up the intensity and began to pull away by taking five of the next six points to creep ahead, 13-9.

Thorpe’s squad maintained its four-point lead and play stopped for a timeout at 20-16. During the break, parents and students sounded like a freight train building momentum as they stomped the bleachers on either side of the gym, and SCS fed off of the crowd’s energy to close the gap to 23-21.

That’s as far as SCS would get as Whispering Palms took matters into their own hands and sent their fan faithful into a frenzy when they completed the sweep, 25-21.