SIS clinches MISO girls volleyball crown

  Saipan International School’s varsity team were crowned back-to-back champions in the 2012 Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization Girls Volleyball League after outlasting Grace Christian Academy in a three-set finale yesterday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.

The champion squad is composed of seniors Zoe Jewell, Jian Joyner, Amber Roberts, and Lani Russel, juniors Celine Camacho, Saeri Oh, and Amy Xie, sophomore Kristle Obgac, and freshmen Jeane Bracken and Phalai Frink. Mili Sakai coaches the team.

The Lady Geckos (SIS 1) came into the weekend tournament ranked second and had to battle the much-improved GCA squad twice in Sunday’s closing rounds.

SIS1 first went through Kagman High School and MHS’s junior varsity on Saturday before meeting GCA for the first time yesterday morning. The Lady Geckos managed to take the opening set of their first match over the Lady Eagles, 25-19, but failed to sweep the game after losing the close second set, 25-27. SIS 1 was way behind in the second set, 3-14, but managed to crawl its way back to knot the count at 21-all, before GCA finally pulled it back together.

Then in the deciding third set, SIS 1 caught a second wind after the marathon, coming back from a 7-9 deficit and stealing a 15-9 win to advance to the finals undefeated. Bracken held the serve at the turning point and led the Lady Geckos to victory with four aces.

“It was one of the best matches I have seen in a very long time. In fact this weekend was the first time that the girls really played together as a unit all season. I knew they had it in them and I am very proud that they stepped up when it needed the most,” Saiki said.

Saiki hit the nail right on the head as SIS1 caught fire from that point and went on to finish off GCA in the finals, 25-22, 25-15.

Notably, the Lady Eagles settled for a third place finish last year and put up quite a fight in both losses. GCA improved from 2011 and finished the regular season with a league best record of 11 wins and one loss, which it absorbed at the hands of none other than SIS 1. The Lady Eagles fought their way back for a shot at the title this time around and certainly provided a tough test on both fronts. The GCA Lady Eagles are only losing one senior next year and have a stout group of juniors expecting to return and try to grab the championship from SIS next season.

In other results, KHS ended up in the third place, beating the well-represented Tinian High School Lady Stallions crew, while SIS’ junior varsity (SIS2 ) finished fifth, MHS’ junior varsity (MHS 2) came in at sixth, and surprisingly the third-ranked MHS varsity team (MHS 1) was forced to forfeit its games due to lack of players.