Conquering netters return

After representing well and making their presence felt at the 6th Super-Krete Guam Junior Tennis Championship, the CNMI junior netters returned home to their proud parents and admiring supporters yesterday evening.

The players, accompanied by coach Jeff Race, arrived at 5:30pm yesterday at the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport.

With all 14 players reaching the finals at the Rick Ninete Tennis Center in Hagatna, the netters reaffirmed the CNMI’s dominance in tennis throughout the Marianas.

As reported earlier, the Motto family had a remarkable weekend as both Audrey and Joe Jr. brought home two championship medals.

“It was really good,” Joe said of his performance and experience. “I kind a knew I’ll be bringing home medals. It wasn’t the best performance I’ve had, but it was still a very good one.”

Sister Audrey explained that she too was confident going into the tournament, citing the training and guidance of coach Race.

“We had lots of practice and tennis lessons,” she said. “It was good. Some of the matches were hard…I had a feeling I was going to win because I was playing really well before we left for the tournament.”

Joe Motto Jr. won the boys’ 12-and-under singles title over teammate Christian Miller, 8-4, and joined forces with Woo Suk Chang to beat Guam’s Blaise Inman and Howard Clark, 8-1.

“It was kind a tough,” the young netter said of the tournament. “In the finals [of the singles] it got harder. I had to make him run and in the doubles make them tired so I can attack. Everything worked out okay.”

For her part, Audrey defeated Terea Tapu of Guam in a nail-biting girls’ 14-and-under singles, 8-7, and teamed up with close friend Vivian Lee to win an all-CNMI finals in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles over Laila Mailman and Camryn Mosley, 8-4.

Meanwhile, Palau South Pacific Mini Games veteran Tim Quan had his way in the boys’ 18-and-under category and explained that he focused on having fun as it will be his final junior tennis tournament.

“It was fun, and it’s my last junior tennis tournament because I’ll be turning 19 before the tournament comes up again next year,” the Santa Clara University student said. “There are still a lot of stuff I should work on, but overall, I was happy with my performance.”

Quan defeated fellow CNMI netter Ralph Buenaventura in the title bout, 8-3.

Kent Kwah and Henry Yang also made sure the CNMI would also have a one-two finish in the boys’ 14-and-under by making the finals, with Kwah posting an 8-2 victory for the title.

Kwah also teamed with Calvin Yang and bagged the boys’ 14-and-under doubles title with an 8-3 victory over Roman Duenas and Michael Tan.

Rising star Ji Hoon Heo, who recently claimed the championship of the 3rd Taga Tennis Tournament men’s open singles, also brought home a gold medal after teaming up with Keith Gabaldon to upset Quan and Buenvantura in the finals of the boys’ 18-and-under doubles finals.

Female sensation Mayuko Arriola, who was coming off a win in the men’s 4.0 category in the Taga Tennis, teamed up with Tapu and reached the finals of the girls’ 18-and-under doubles, placing first runner-up. The team competed well and gave Guam’s Yumika and Auri Sugahara a good run before losing, 5-8.

The girls’ 18-and-under singles title was a battle between the Sugahara sisters, with Yumika taking the crown, 8-0.

Race had earlier explained that the CNMI performance was pretty similar to last year’s push, and is very pleased that the young netters competed well in another off island tournament.

“I guess you could say the training did them well,” Race said. “We still need more practice and to build confidence. It’s like any other tennis event…you can have a bad day and some good days.”

Race said it was an excellent effort from the team, especially since each member brought home at least a medal.