SIS completes dream season over MBA

The Geckos of Saipan International School put the finishing touches on their undefeated season yesterday as they thwarted the Marianas Baptist Academy Storm in the Private Schools Volleyball League championship at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium in Oleai.

After completing the regular season with an unmarred 14-0 record, the Geckos cruised through the playoff tournament with wins over Seventh Day Adventist School and Mount Carmel School before they took MBA in the finals to finish 17-0 overall in the junior varsity.

“I think that no matter if it’s junior varsity, high school, college, or the pros, anytime you go undefeated with people giving their best shot at you it’s pretty special. We withstood everybody’s best games and came out on top. It’s a credit to our team. It’s a special team. They love to practice, they have a lot of good character, and in a good way they were very competitive—in a good way. There was really good chemistry,” said SIS coach Rick Linkenhelt.

The coach also mentioned that he was happy to get the win over MBA because they were such a challenge all season long.

“Every time we played them it was tough. Today it was back and forth the whole time. Both teams played really well. In a game like this you hate to see anyone lose, but it feels good to win,” said Linkenhelt.

Shelomie Hardegen, Jennifer Sakamoto, Alice Tessen, Justice Tenorio, Shane Jones, Rima Halaby, Taiki Asano, Sang Jae Cho, and MVP Lena Guzman took the lead by edging the Storm in the first set, 26-24, but they got off to a slow start in the second match, and it eventually cost them. After taking a couple of points early, MBA continued to play inspired ball as they edged SIS by the narrowest of margins in the second tie the match at a set apiece, 25-23.

Both teams took a short break and switched sides for the final race to 15, and MBA struck first in the rally scoring format, but their miscue allowed the Geckos to tie the game on the next play, 1-1.

SIS built upon the point to take the lead 4-1, but MBA crept back into the game to pull within a point at the 5-4 mark. Miscues gave the Geckos another point, and they added another pair to swap ends of the court with an 8-4 lead. The switch helped MBA right away as they took the opening point, but they dropped the next two before scoring again, 10-6.

The Storm added another pair to come within two points of the Geckos before the SIS coach called a timeout to refocus his little lizards. It worked well, as SIS got six of the final seven points to close out the set and the game, 15-10.

“It was great and it was scary. It was like we’re winning, then we’re losing, then we’re winning again so it was a little nervous,” said Halaby.

“It feels really good and I’m happy. It was really hard,” said Sakamoto.

The victory was extra special for Tessen because the eighth grader knows how it feels to be on the other side of the courts as well.

“Last year we took second, so it felt really good to win first place,” she said.