Kaga sisters, Tuttle shut out foes

Siblings Conatsu and Coume Kaga and Ericka Tuttle had a strong finish in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships as they powered the North Pacific Team to a 3-0 win against the West squad yesterday at the Regional Training Center in Lautoka, Fiji.

The CNMI’s female players pose for a group photo before the start of the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji last week. (Contributed Photo)

Conatsu started things off for the CNMI-led North Pacific crew as she outlasted the Solomon Islands’ Zorika Morgan in an extended singles match in the girls U12 age group. The older Kaga faltered in the opening set, 1-6, but came back swinging in the second with her own 6-1 victory and picked up where she left off, notching a 10-3 triumph in the super-tiebreaker third set.

With Conatsu’s singles win, the North group needed only one doubles triumph to beat the West and got the victory early when Tuttle teamed up with the Federated States of Micronesia’s Anne Skilling and downed the Solomon Islands’ Prudence Bird and Vanuatu’s Desiree Signo in the opening doubles tiff, 6-4, 6-4.

Despite gaining the outright win, the North’s girls U12 bets kept going with the Kaga siblings completing their domination of the West squad with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph versus the pair or Morgan and Fiji’s Saoirse Breen in the second doubles game.

The victory over the West crew gave the North’s girls U12 team a perfect record (2-0) in the team event as the latter earlier edged the East group, 2-1. The Kagas gave the North the two wins versus the East with Conatsu beating Tahiti’s Meherio Tautu, 6-2, 6-4, in their singles match last Monday, and then partnering with her sister in outclassing another Tahiti pair in Tautu and Chrissy Vonge, 6-0, 7-5.

The Kaga siblings and Tuttle’s triumph in the girls U12 division was also the lone win the North crew recorded in the second and last day of the team tournament. The North dropped its matches in the girls U14 age group and boys U12 and U14 divisions.

In the girls U14, the North squad lost to eventual overall champion East team, 1-2.

The CNMI’s Malika Miyawaki and Mimi Sakano delivered the only victory for the North squad as they topped American Samoa’s Hanisi Ledua and Mychealla Miller, 6-0, 6-0, in the first doubles match. Miyawaki played in the second doubles game, too, but she and Tania Tan bowed to Samoa’s Eleanor Schuster and American Samoa’s Crystal Christman, 6-4, 4-6, 6-10. Tan also lost to Schuster in an earlier singles match, 3-6, 0-6.

In the boys U12 division, the North squad absorbed a 0-3 defeat at the hands of the West team. The CNMI’s Seun Jin Paik partnered with Guam’s Andrew Leng in the first doubles match and they fell to Tuvalu’s Kelese Kofe and Vanuatu’s Warea Tigona, 2-6, 0-6. Paik’s fellow CNMI player Ji Min Woo also competed in the doubles with Jerson Freddy and the North duo bowed to Kofe and Fiji’s Maui Leflon, 1-6, 2-6. Freddy suited up in the only singles game in the division and was also beaten by Leflon, 3-6, 2-6.

In the boys U14 age group, the North squad managed to gain one win courtesy of the CNMI’s Vincent Tudela and FSM’s Joab William. Tudela and William swept American Samoa’s John Quin Lim and Fiji’s Kristen Pavitt, 6-4, 6-4, to prevent the East team from shutting down the North. The East’s Gilliant Osmont defeated the CNMI’s Robbie Schorr in the singles match, 7-6 (2), 7-5, and later joined forces with fellow Tahiti player Jeremy Guines in outclassing Schorr and Ken Song in the second and last doubles game, 7-6 (3), 6-2.