V’ball players lead January awardees

  Volleyball players won three of the four awards given during the NMASA January meeting last Thursday night at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Clay McCullough-Stearns and Toni Yamada clinched the TSL Foundation/NMASA Student Athletes of the Month (for January) awards, while J.R. Gechig took the Male Athlete of the Month plum.

All three awardees played in the Annual Rever Co-Ed Grass Volleyball Tournament in Navy Hill. The Saipan International School student McCullough-Stearns teamed up with schoolmate Amber Roberts and won several games in the double round-robin elimination to advance to the playoff round. The SIS duo went on to challenge Gechig and Charnessa Lizama in the quarterfinals and then Yamada and Tyce Mister in the loser’s bracket semis, but dropped both matches to settle for third place.

Yamada with the help of Mister made it all the way to the finals before bowing to Gechig and Lizama in the championship. Gechig and Lizama were unbeaten in the 16-team elimination round to take the No. 1 seeding in the playoffs. The eventual winners then defeated Roberts and McCullough-Stearns in the first semis game to march into the finals with a twice-to-beat advantage. In the finals Gechig and Lizama faced Mister and Yamada and won the crown right away after a 21-18 victory in Game 1.

Joining the three volleyball players in the January winners list was bowler Gloria Omechelang.

The Saipan Bowling Association member was named 2011 Budweiser Queen of the Lanes after ruling the group’s season-ending event last month. Omechelang, who also prevailed in the 2010 finale roll-offs, notched back-to-back titles after surviving the stepladder finals.

She finished only third after the eight-game qualifying roll-off, taking the last ticket to the stepladder finals. Then Omechelang had to beat the second-ranked Carol McKenzie, 143-128, to keep her championship bid alive and set up a title duel against the No. 1 seed Yho Villavicencio.

In the finals, Omechelang needed to prevail in Game 1 to force a deciding Game 2 and she did it, winning the opener, 187-175. Omechelang went on to complete the come-from-behind victory with a 153-121 triumph in Game 2.

Omechelang and the three awardees from Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association are now candidates for the 2012 NMASA Male and Female and Student Male and Female Athletes of the Year awards.

Meanwhile, NMASA is calling all monthly awardees for 2011 to attend the group’s awards banquet on Feb. 16 at the Saipan Grand Hotel. The awards rites will start at 6pm.