Wins for women’s hoops and beach volleyball

MAJURO, Marshall Islands—It was a great kickoff to the week as the NMI Women’s National Basketball team scooped their first win on their first day of games yesterday versus Nauru, 55-37, at the Education & Cultural Center.

It was a physical game as NMI was fouled left and right after the game opened up with a 3-pointer by California fly-in,Alliyah Fernandez. Even with that, they kept the pace and held Nauru at bay, 14-4, in the first quarter.

The team kept the punches rolling for a 25-8 second quarter. Nauru had some fight left in them as they scored 14 points in the third to come within half, 22-41. But, NMI’s fast break plays and strong defense held up to win by a margin of 18 points.

Fernandez led the team with 12 points, while Cassie Camacho scored 7, and Lia Rangamar and Destiny Pangelinan had 6 points each.

Coach Connie Camacho said the game went really well. “We used our height advantage inside and stole a lot of balls. Though they were bigger than us, we used our speed and that’s why the outcome was a win,” she said.

As to how she felt after their win, she said, “I’m feeling really good. The girls are coming together. We’re not perfect but we’re getting there—our game is gelling.”

Camacho said they need to beat Chuuk today to retain first place in their pool and get the bye.

On how this sets the tone for the rest of the tournament, she said, “This sets the tone. This was a must win and we got the win, so we’re ahead now. We just need to win two more games in our pool, to advance and be in a good position to win a medal hopefully.”

In beach volleyball on a rainy morning, the men’s duo of Dylan Mister and Jermaine Salas won their game against Kiribati, 21-13, 21-15.

Salas said of their match, “it was pretty good. We lost our match yesterday (Sunday), so we just kind of talked about it overnight, fixed a few things, and changed some things we messed up yesterday. We got a good warmup today so that’s pretty much how we won our match.”

For Mister, he said, “Communication is key. With the weather, we had to work with what we got. We’re so thankful for the tennis team coming out and cheering us on.”

The bronze medal matchup is today.

As for the women’s duo of Kathy Winkfield and Aurora Santos, they slipped to Palau in a crucial game to determine who advances to the gold medal round today.

Palau’s pair pummeled Team NMI in the first set, 21-13, as the rain continued its downpour. Then, the duo of Winkfield and Santos came back with a rally in the second set, 22-20, to force a decisive third set.

It was definitely a fight to the finish as both teams battled it out as strong as the rain battered the court and kept the tie until 13 points. Palau’s duo then sealed the deal with two straight points and pushed NMI to the bronze medal round today.

In other results, the NMI Women’s National Fast Pitch Softball Team lost to the host team Marshall Islands, 1-5, after their game was delayed to last night due to strong rain in the morning.