Sweep for CNMI girls U14 team

The CNMI’s girls U14 players gave the North Pacific a good start in the team event in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships as they swept their foes yesterday at the Regional Training Center in Lautoka, Fiji.

Mimi Sakano, seen here making a baseline return in a local tournament at the Pacific Islands Club court early this year, helped the North Pacific Team sweep the West crew in the girls U14 team event in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships yesterday in Fiji. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Tania Tan handed the North Pacific Team the outright win in their age group after prevailing in the first two matches against the West Pacific. Tan swept Vanuatu’s Rosalie Molballeh in the lone singles game, 6-1, 6-1, and then teamed up with Malika Miyawaki in surviving Molballeh and another Vanuatu player, Daisy Spiti, in three sets. The CNMI pair dropped the opening set, 3-6, but saved the victory after winning the last two, 6-3, 10-8.

Miyawaki played her second doubles match of the day and this time partnered with Mimi Sakano in completing the North Pacific’s sweep in the girls U14 team event following their 6-2, 6-1 triumph over the Solomon Islands’ Christma Au and Kiribati’s Caroline Mwang.

In other results, the North crew also emerged victorious in the boys U14 division after slipping past the West squad. 2-1.

Robbie Schorr drew first blood for the North, as he pulled off a hard earned 6-4, 6-7 (3), 10-7 victory over singles champion Clement Mainguy of Vanuatu. It was sweet revenge for Schorr, as he fell to Mainguy in a three-set semifinal match during the first week of individual competition in the POJC.

Schorr also played in the first doubles match with fellow CNMI bet Ken Song, but they lost to Mainguy and Kiribati’s Banien Ioera, 4-6, 3-6, allowing the West crew to force a deadlock and set up a deciding second doubles tiff. In the second doubles, the CNMI’s Vincent Tudela joined forces with the Federated States of Micronesia’s Joab William and they clinched the win for the North team after sweeping Vanuatu’s Marlin Hannam and Tuvalu’s Gawin Molotii, 6-4, 6-4.

In the girls U12 division, the Conatsu Kaga-led North squad had a similar 2-1 win over the East Pacific Team. Kaga gave the North a victory in the only singles match in the pairing after topping Tahiti’s Meherio Tautu, 6-2, 6-4, and later teamed up with sister Coume in sweeping Tautu and Chrissy Vonge, also of Tahiti, 6-0, 7-5.

The East crew averted a North sweep when Samoa’s Leafine Cronin and American Samoa Jireh Warren outlasted the CNMI’s Ericka Tuttle and FSM’s Anne Skilling in an extended doubles game, 7-6 (5), 0-6, 10-2.

In the girls U16, singles champion Carol Lee towed the North to a 2-1 win against the East squad. Lee eased past Samoa’s Anasis Saipele in the singles, 6-2, 6-1, and secured the victory for the North group after partnering with Isabel Heras in dominating Saipele and Tahiti’s Guitton in the first singles match, 6-1, 6-1. The East foiled the North’s bid for a 3-0 win after Tahiti’s Lea Lamorelle and American Samoa’s Michelle Miller downed the CNMI’s Ami Tsukagoshi and Guam’s Tara Lee in the other doubles tiff, 6-3, 6-2.

The victory against the East team allowed Lee and company to bounce back from a 0-3 loss in the morning match versus the West squad. Carol Lee played only in the first doubles game and she and Heras bowed to the Solomon Islands’ Georjimar Row and Vinda Teally, 6-7 (5), 3-6. Palau’s Ayana Rengiil played the lone singles match for the North and retired after the first set, which Row won, 6-2. Tara Lee and Tsukagoshi also teamed up in the second doubles match and were blanked by Fiji’s Ruby Coffin and Vienna Kumar.

In the boys U12 division, Ji Min Woo and teammate Jerson Freddy of FSM eked out a 6-4, 6-3, win over Tahiti’s Elie Monovai and Samoa’s Corey Duseigneur in the second doubles match. However, the victory was not enough to lift the North past the East crew, which prevailed in the first two games to earn the win. Tahiti’s Vaitea Molinier bagged the first triumph for the East after sweeping Guam’s Andrew Leng, 6-0, 6-0, and then the former partnered with American Samoa’s Phillip Warren in beating Leng and the CNMI’s Seung Jin Paik, 6-1, 6-3.