CNMI netters bag 2 doubles titles

Julia Ishikawa, left, and Tania Tan pose for a photo after winning a doubles championship in the 2014 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships Event 2 in Fiji yesterday. (Contributed Photo)

The second-ranked team clinched the division championship after pulling off an upset over the top-seeded tandem of Crystal Christman of American Samoa and Lea Lamorelle of Tahiti, 6-0, 6-1, yesterday in Fiji.

Tan and Ishikawa won the doubles championships without dropping a single set in the division, as their first two victories also came via sweeps. The two CNMI bets drew a bye in the first round before dominating Samoa’s Leafine Cronin and Eleanor Schuster, 6-0, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals. In the bracket semis, Tan and Ishikawa were paired against American Samoa’s Michelle Miller and Lessei Perelini and the Commonwealth players escaped with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 triumph to book a finals date with Lamorelle and Christman.

Lamorelle and Christman foiled an all-CNMI finals when they defeated Conatsu Kaga and Asia Raulerson in the semis, 6-4, 6-3. Kaga and Raulerson barged into the Final Four after topping Fiji’s Saoirse Breen and New Caledonia’s Leilani Ipunesso in the quarterfinals, 6-3, 6-0, while Lamorelle and Christman prevailed over the CNMI’s Malika Miyawaki and Ami Tsukagoshi, 6-0, 6-4. Kaga and Raulerson ended up in fourth place in the division after dropping the consolation game against Miler and Perelini, 4-6, 4-6.

Meanwhile, Robbie Schorr gave the CNMI its second doubles championship in the second POJC competition, which put players (respective age groups) in one draw and has a single-elimination format. In the POJC Event 1, players were divided into pools and the top finishers in each group advanced to the playoffs.

Schorr, who finished fourth in the singles event and lost in the semis in the doubles in POJC Event 1, this time made it all the way to the finals and won in the boys 14/14 age group. He teamed up with Guam’s Camden Camacho and also stunned their foes, the top-ranked Ben Pechan of Vanuatu and Samoa’s Phillip Warren, 6-1, 6-1. Schorr and Camacho were seeded second in the draw and marched into the finals after a 6-1, 6-4 win over Fiji’s Maui Leflon and Vanuatu’s Samuel Strid. Pechan and Warren notched a finals berth after a 7-6 (1), 6-3 triumph over Kiribati’s Banien Ioera and Tahiti’s Vaitea Molinier, who ousted the CNMI’s Ken Song and Guam’s Andrew Leng in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-2.

In other results, Colin Ramsey made his second finals appearance in the doubles, teaming up anew with the Federated States of Micronesia’s Terry Rush.

Ramsey and Rush, who lost to American Samoa’s Kevin Maukoloa and Jummah Vigas in boys U16 doubles finals last week, notched two early wins to get a second crack at Maukola and his new partner Manoa Desvignes. The North Pacific pair first topped Tahiti’s Rehiti Chin Meun and Vigas, 6-2, 7-6 (4), and then survived Samoa’s Harley Cronin and American Samoa’s Larry Maglasan in the semis, 6-2, 5-7, 10-4, to enter the finals. Maukoloa and Desvignes also claimed two wins to set up a finals duel with Ramsey and Rush and the East and West players went on to extend their streak to three after a 6-2, 6-2 victory over the North Pacific pair.

Luther Lizama also played in the boys 16/14 doubles, but he and Guam’s Mason Caldwell dropped their first match to Solomon Islands’ Junior Benjamin and Graham Mani, 3-6, 1-6. Still in the 16/14 age group, girls division, U14 singles champion and CNMI’s Carol Lee teamed up with Palau’s Ayana Rengiil and they reached the semifinal round. The duo edged Solomon Islands’ Georjimah Row and Papua New Guinea’s Bianca Terra, 6-2, 7-6 (3) to force a semis duel against New Caledonia’s Lea Bolo and Fiji’s Ruby Coffin. Bolo and Coffin won, 7-5, 4-6, 10-7, and also prevailed against Fiji’s Mulan Kamoe and Solomon Islands’ Vinda Teally in the finals, 6-3, 6-4.