Combo butchers competition at PIC

Kelley “Fruity Mom” Butcher and Mili “the Peruvian Punisher” Saiki dispatched all comers with style over the weekend to win the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association’s latest qualifying tournament on the sands of the Pacific Islands Club.

The killer combo tasted the sweet nectar of revenge as they exacted the win over Laurie Peterka and Heather Kennedy in the same style that the runner-ups pulled over them in the first tournament back in October 2005.

Butcher-Saiki opened their third campaign with a one-sided 21-12 win over rising stars Amber Roberts and Rima Halaby, and got a major lift when they sent the NMIVA crown frontrunners Stephanie Arnold and Jazmine Anastacio to the losers’ bracket, 21-16.

The duo punched its ticket to the finals when they edged the Peterka-Kennedy, 24-22, but Butcher-Saiki hadn’t seen the last of them.

In October, Peterka-Kennedy sent Butcher-Saiki to the losers’ bracket only to beat them once again in the finals. This time the tables were turned as Butcher-Saiki served a cold dish of revenge to their familiar foes as they beat the duo in the finals, 21-15.

Despite laying waste to the skilled competitors that joined them on the sands of San Antonio, Butcher and Saiki are not in the running to represent the CNMI in the 2006 Micronesian Games.

Due to the residency requirements mandated by the international competition’s founding fathers, Butcher is ineligible to march behind the latte stone, star, and mwarmwar because of her recent arrival on Saipan in 2005.

That comes as welcome news for the weekend’s runner-ups as Peterka and Kennedy will have one less feisty foe to face in the final qualification tournament, as Butcher-Saiki would have certainly made an appearance.

While NMIVA still has one more qualifier for the women’s beach team on Saturday, Feb. 4, the association will then take the four tandems with the most points and pit them against one another in a final tournament that will ultimately decide the CNMI’s lady leapers.

As of now, Benylynn Mettao and Sia Dela Cruz are favored to get the last of the four tickets to the final tournament by virtue of their two third place finishes and 44-point total, but they were absent from Saturday’s action.

While it’s disappointing to see a team that failed to appear for the qualifying round advance to the tournament, Mettao-Dela Cruz is one of the island’s best teams and would make the competition a bit more difficult.

If they fail to appear yet again, they could be replaced by Rima Halaby and Katy Johnson, but the youngsters would have to pull off at least a third place finish to do so. To date their top finish was fifth place back in November of 2005.