White, Dunlop, Guamanians take Seaside Grill titles
Local volleyball mavens Gabriel White and Donn Dunlop cruised through the men’s bracket without a loss, while Lisa Bordallo and Aubrey Posadas did the same in the women’s division to take first place in the Seaside Grill Volleyball Tournament at the Pacific Islands Club.
Father’s Day briefly took a back seat to the volleyball-athon on Sunday as some of the top bumpers, setters, and spikers from the Marianas and beyond descended upon the San Antonio sand courts for the weekend’s two-person matches.
White and Dunlop eliminated 2003 champion Russ Quinn and last year’s titleholder Tomo “Tomomatic” Obata from Sendai, Japan in the finals by edging the dynamic duo by two points in a 21-19 rally-point squeaker.
The four were clearly representing the island’s upper echelon as they went point for point before White and Dunlop finally gained a two-point advantage in the closing moments of play.
White and Dunlop got a bye in the first round of the race to first place, and took advantage of the planning time by devising a way to crush young gunners Jay Jay Lu and Quincy Johnson by a 21-5 score. They faced a little more opposition in their next match, but sent Marino Pungilug and Eddie Kim to the losers’ bracket with a 21-14 score.
The competition intensified with an action-packed match against Bruce Berline and Randy Steele, but the duo continued on track with a 21-17 win that gave Berline and Steele their first loss of the day. The win also assured White and Dunlop of a spot in the finals, where they awaited the winner of Berline/Steele and Quinn/Obata match-up.
After clawing their way through Jess Palacios and Rannel Calexterio, 21-8, and the PIC combo of Peter and Pungilug, 21-17, Quinn and Obata edged Berline and Steele by the narrowest of margins, 22-20, to enter the finals.
On the women’s side, Bordallo and Posadas downed local leapers Laura Burley and Linda Anastacio twice to earn their title, but their 21-8 victory was only the final chapter of their Seaside story.
After receiving a first-round bye, the Guamanian women’s national team for next month’s South Pacific Mini Games survived a 21-17 scare to Izumi Kawakami and Kelly Butcher in their first match.
All warmed up after their first game, Bordallo and Posadas returned to the sand to hand Burley and Anastacio their first loss of the tournament by a crushing 21-5 score. Burley and Anastacio rebounded in the losers’ bracket with a 21-17 win over Benylynn Mettao and Sia Maui to earn a rematch with the Guamanians, but experienced a similar result.