Shirley’s draws 1st blood in Traders tourney

Shirley’s Badminton Club won its opening assignment in the 7th Traders Insurance Team Tournament after dominating Taga Badminton Club, 26-4, over the weekend at the the TSL Sports Complex.

Shirley’s nearly swept Taga in the first pairing in the tournament, prevailing in nine of the 10 matches set last weekend. It notched eight victories via sweeps and pulled off one more win in a three-game tiff.

Aries Cordero and Jeff Riman gave Shirley’s its first triumph in the opening day after beating Panapa Peteru and Celso Agui in the men’s doubles B, 21-16, 21-14. Shirley’s went on to sweep the men’s doubles matches, as Macoi Aguda and Hapi Gabriel topped Park and Agui in the A division, 21-12, 21-14, and Father Charlie Borja and Tony triumphed over Park and Peteru, 21-16, 21-11.

Shirley’s also notched a 3-0 record in the mixed doubles and 3-1 in the women’s doubles to complete its demolition of Taga.

In the mixed doubles A, Gabriel and Annette Ta teamed up in defeating Agui and Merlie Tolentino after only two games. Ta and Gabriel won by four points in the opening game, 21-17, and played even better in the second with a 21-9 victory.

Brendon Talania and Windy Fernandez also took only two games to down A.J. Ortega and Cristy Villaflor in the mixed doubles B. The Shirley’s pair bagged a 21-14 victory in the opening game and won the second in similar scores.

Ta played her second mixed doubles match and this time partnered with Jerry Hibi in outclassing Gigi Zapanta and Che. Hibi and Ta notched a 21-12 win in the first game and completed the sweep with a 21-7 triumph in the second game of their mixed doubles AB tiff.
In the women’s doubles A, Lani Bartolome joined forces with Toshiko Obata in making short work of Loyda Ito and Shirley Kim. Bartolome and Obata coasted to a 21-15 win in the opening game before eking out a 21-18 in the second.

Bartolome contributed one more win to Shirley’s when she worked with Fernandez in beating Ito and Elna Curate in the women’s doubles AB. Bartolome and Fernandez pulled off a 21-19 victory in the first game and had another tough win in the second, 21-20.
Obata also gave Shirley’s two victories last weekend, but the second win was not easy as she and Vilma needed three games to thwart Curate and Lani Santos in the women’s BC. The Shirley’s duo dropped the closely fought first game, 20-21, but won the last two, 21-19, 21-18, to foil Taga’s bid for win No. 1.

The elusive first victory finally came for Taga when Santos and Roxe Lazaro dominated Shirley’s newcomers Wilma and Joanne Jewel in the women’s doubles C, 21-11, 21-8.

Meanwhile, Shirley’s will be paired against the tough Community Badminton Club this weekend, while Taga is scheduled to resume its game against Golden Racquets after playing the first five matches of their duel last Sunday. Saipan Badminton Club also played the first half of its matches against CBC last weekend and results of these games will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Friday edition.

The five participating teams will play in a round-robin format in the preliminary with the Top 2 teams in the standings advancing to the finals and the next four battling for third place. Each team gets 3 points for every victory via sweep and 2 for a three-game win and the standings will be based on points gathered by each squad after playing 40 matches.