Jolly Bangerz wrap up v-ball tourney with title

The Jolly Bangerz wrapped up the 5th Annual Agape Christmas Volleyball Tournament with the championship last Friday at the Agape Gymnasium.

The merry band of young volleyball players captained by John Justo, along with Jerico Castro, Akira Ota, Nahson Padahk, Seth Tababa, Mokyang Kim, Yeshaiah Coleman, Nehemiah Coleman, and Shadrach Coleman, clinched the men’s division championship after rallying past 4 Starz in a thrilling finale, 25-20, 17-25, 15-8.

After Jolly Bangerz claimed the first set, 25-20, veteran team 4 Starz made up of Nak Nakashima, Francisco Kumuch, Jerry Saures, Alfredo Guevarra, Danilo Borja, Nilo Calimag, J.R. Gechig, John Nekaifes, Jason Limes, and Marc Danga gave them a run for their money as they evened up the finals in the second set with a 25-17 win.

4 Starz was determined to go all the way and win the title after losing the first set, but the Jolly Bangerz had a secret weapon by way of Castro’s untouchable serves.

Castro controlled the court and laid it all on the line in the winner-take-all final set as he power-served his team to a 7-0 lead. The 4 Starz’s defenses were penetrated over and over with well-placed and powerful aces that put the Jolly Bangerz closer to victory.

4 Starz managed to claw their way from an almost shutout third set and sneaked in a few points. It wasn’t enough though to come out of a large deficit and in the end, Jolly Bangerz’s overpowered them with an explosion of untouchable spikes at the net which led to the eventual downfall of 4 Starz and the claim of the championship trophy.

The Jolly Bangerz defeated Mistletoe Magic in the semis last Thursday, 25-22, 20-25, 15-7. Before that, they beat Chura in the quarterfinals in two rapid-fire sets, 25-20, 25-23.

The tourney started last Dec. 16 with 12 men’s teams and eight women’s teams and were put into two pools of the men’s and women’s bracket.

Justo said of their win, “It’s a good experience and a good fight for us to challenge 4 Starz—they’re mostly national players—and our team are mostly high school students. So, it was a good challenge.”

As for the tournament, he said their team started off slow as they still had to build chemistry and gain confidence as a team. Later, it all fell into place. He said in the finals, “we took the first set pretty confidently, but in the second set, they got to us. In the third set though, we started getting it back and got the lead.” He attributed the final set to Castro’s powerful 7-0 performance.

He then thanked Agape Christian School for hosting the tourney every year, and event coordinator En Yang Pang.

Results of the women’s championship game will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.