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Thea goes for last hurrah in nationals
Minor
Former CNMI junior player Thea Minor wants to go out with a bang as she competes in the NJCAA Nationals from May 7 to 13 at the Murphy Tennis Center in Tyler, Texas.
“I just want to enjoy and work hard one last time in the nationals for junior college before moving up in NCAA Division 2 next fall,” said Minor, who is on her last year with the New Mexico Military Institute in Division 1 of the National Junior College Athletics Association and will be suiting up for Henderson State University in Arkansas next year.
Minor’s squad made it to the nationals for the second straight year after placing at No. 12 in the rankings. In the individual rankings, Minor and her doubles partner Lorraine Banimataku of Fiji moved up to No. 8 from No. 10 last year, while in the singles, the Commonwealth netter is ranked at No. 24.
In last year’s nationals, Minor made it to the quarterfinals both in the singles and doubles, while NMMI finished at No. 12. This year, the 21-year-old daughter of Joy and Boyet Minor sees a much tougher individual competition, while she likes her team’s overall chances.
“I would say my chances will be a lot harder this year compared to last’s since I moved up to play No. 1 in singles for the team this season. Last year, we only have four players, but now we have a full team so I think our chances to move further into the tournament are higher. We have a pretty strong team this year,” said Minor.
Besides Minor and Banimataku, the Broncos also have holdovers Amanda Hawkins of the Federated States of Micronesia and Lorish Puluspene of Papua New Guinea and freshmen Jewel Ellis of Bahamas, Francisco Nyarko of Ghana, and Katarzyna Rosikon of Poland. Former Oceania Tennis Federation regional development officer Dan O’Connell is still coaching the squad.
