GCA secures top seeding in playoffs

Grace Christian Academy’s Jasmine Phan goes for an overhand serve during their game against Mt. Carmel School’s varsity team in the CCOPSA volleyball league last Monday at the MCS court in Chalan Kanoa. (Roby N. Pamintuan)

Grace Christian Academy bested Mount Carmel School’s varsity team in two sets in the girls division game in the 2018-2019 Commonwealth Coalition of Private Schools Association Volleyball League last Monday at the Knights’ court in Chalan Kanoa.

The Lady Eagles swooped past the Lady Knights, 25-12, 25-16, to push their record to a league-best 9-1 and claim the top seeding in the playoffs. MCS, on the other hand, finished the regular season with a 7-3 mark to slide to third place behind Saipan International School 1 (8-2).

The Lady Geckos took the No. 2 seeding in the playoffs following a sweep of Agape Christian School, 25-18, 25-13, in the other girls division match last Monday at the Torchbearers court in Gualo Rai. Agape wrapped up the regular season with only one win against nine losses. Mt. Carmel’s junior varsity squad (3-6) and SIS 2 (1-8) complete the division and will play in the last make-up game in the regular season today with results of their match to determine the pairings in the first round of the playoffs.

In the penultimate game in the regular season, reserves Joyce Francisco, Miku Kimura, and Tina Choi suited up for GCA in the second and final set and played key roles in keeping MCS at bay. Francisco and Kimura made key defensive stops, while Choi slammed the game-clinching spike. Complementing the quality games of the Lady Eagles’ second stringers were captains Jasmine Phan and Clerisse Dacumos, who were business as usual in the second set, with the former consistently finishing the right on the money sets from the latter.

Earlier in the first set, Dacumos and Karina Dilse had brilliant performances from the server’s spot. With the score knotted up at 3-3, Dacumos dialed in with seven consecutive serves to hand the Lady Eagles a 10-3 advantage. Then at the 17-12 mark, Dilse rattled home a spike then rotated to the server’s line, where she scored seven uninterrupted underhand serves to ice the opening frame.

Before Dilse closed out strong for GCA, Lady Knights captain Louisa Hahn fired off a spike to halt Dacumos’ serving onslaught. Han also mustered a string of three serves, but her efforts were a drop in the bucket in comparison to the team effort shown by the Lady Eagles.

“We’re at our best when we’re having fun and playing together,” GCA coach Cesar Libut said. “They play really well when they’re loose and relaxed like today (last Monday).”

Meanwhile, in the boys division, the Eagles also soared past the Knights, 25-12, 25-19. With the victory, GCA quickly bounced back from its loss to SIS and finished the regular season with a division-leading 5-1 record, while MCS was winless in six games.

In other results, SIS also prevailed against Agape after only two sets, 25-28, 25-18, to beat the Torchbearers in the battle for the No. 2 spot in the final team standings. Before their duel, SIS and Agape held identical 3-2 marks.