Heaven on Earth reign in women’s division

Heaven on Earth claimed the women’s division championship of the 5th Annual Agape Christmas Volleyball Tournament last Friday at the Agape Gymnasium.

Coming out of volleyball retirement and from the soccer pitch to the volleyball courts, the Heaven on Earth team captained by Michelle Masga, along with Somia Quan, Charnessa Lizama, Toni Kasilyn Olopai, Moriah Sablan, Kathy Winkfield, Jhaneeka Atalig, Jaime Camacho, and Jan Travilla reigned in the women’s division to win the championship against Grinch Gang, 25-15, 25-23.

Young volleyball players including captain Aiko Rasiang, and Nichiko Rasiang, Veralei Hapdei, Vinalei Hapdei, Jovinia Moses, Deivalyn Ham, Direnalyn Castro, Katriel Saures, Jen Savellano, and Azriel Fatialofa made up the Grinch Gang and put up a great fight against the much more experienced Heaven on Earth team.

Heaven on Earth gave Grinch Gang hell as they went down to business from the first set, shutting down any rebuttal that they had. It was a quick first set as Grinch Gang could not get past Heaven on Earth’s reinforcements.

Grinch Gang put up a better fight in the second set and tried to make a push for a tie-breaker, but came up just short. Heaven on Earth’s serves and kills halted Grinch Gang in their tracks to scoop the win in just two sets.

Heaven on Earth bested seven other teams in the tourney that started last Dec. 16. In the semis, they defeated Volleyholics, 25-12, 25-14 last Dec. 28.

Quan said after the awards ceremony that the tourney for them was tough at first, but “the more we played with each other, the better we got, the more we improved. We were kind of just tracking higher and higher so to end with the championship, it was very surprising, but also very rewarding.”

Their team played against a much younger Grinch Gang in the finals and Quan said that they played really well and to end up in the finals with them was a good matchup.

Their strategy, Quan said, was “keeping it consistent and trying to minimize the errors. Talk a lot—we notice when we are talking more, we play a lot looser and it just flows a little bit better.”

She added that it’s her first time playing in the tourney and thanked tournament coordinator En Yang Pang and Agape Christian School for organizing it.

Pang said the tourney and turnout was great. He said, “I can definitely see the growth in volleyball on our island, because now there are a lot more people who are interested in playing. The open gym is a testament to that. Every week, there’s like, at least 50 people coming out to play and that showed in the number of teams that we had. This year, there was a record turnout—12 men’s teams and eight women’s teams.”

He said he was “very impressed” with the women’s teams’ turnout and with the amount of spectators that came out every night to watch the games.

Pang then thanked the sponsors of the tourney Fishing Tackle & Sporting Goods, All Star Sporting Goods, and MarPac.