Eagles soar in volleyball finals

The Eagles of Grace Christian Academy survived a scare from Saipan International School at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium yesterday and became the varsity champions of the Private Schools Indoor Volleyball League.

Though they were trailing early into their first set, it was only a matter of time before the Eagles and their captain Jose Mafnas tied the game at six apiece, took the lead, and never looked back.

Mafnas was too much for the Geckos as his right arm sent lasers to the Ada floor in rapid succession. When Mafnas wasn’t hammering hits, James Sakamoto was there to drop bombs on SIS.

The Eagles rallied from an early deficit to take the first set by a comfortable 10-point margin when a powerful Mafnas hit found the floor, 25-15, but the tables were turned in the second as the Geckos turned up the offense.

After dropping the one-sided opener, SIS built a 9-1 lead and increased its led to 14 points late in the game before evening the set count at one apiece with an equally one-sided 25-11 win in the second.

The big hitters on the GCA side lost their juice in between the first and second sets and errors plagued the Eagles and momentum clearly shifted to the Geckos’ side of the court. SIS was visibly energized by their clutch performance as head coach Rob Epley hi-fived his players on the court and prepared for the rubber match.

The Geckos were in control early on, as Melisa Halaby hammered every ball that Henry Chan set up for her to put SIS ahead 6-2 in the race to 15 points. The Eagles didn’t fly away and chipped away at the lead before evening the game at six apiece and surging ahead, 7-6.

SIS managed to tie the game at seven but that’s as far as they would get as Sakamoto powered out the go-ahead eighth point at the net. GCA controlled the flow of the game and their fans were chanting “One more” when they were on the verge of victory at 14-8. The intensity may have been too much for the youngsters as their next serve went out of bounds and counted as an SIS point. The Geckos played tough but knew that their next mistake would be their last, and the gym erupted when the ball fell between diving SIS players to give GCA its victory.

Third place went to the Mount Carmel School Knights, who knocked off their counterparts from the Marianas Baptist Academy Stormz in straight sets, 25-13 and 25-23.

The loss stung MBA players as they completed the season atop the standings looking every bit the part of the champions, but their back-to-back losses to SIS and MCS did little to diminish their accomplishments.

Head coach Stan Good said that he was proud of his team and that their feat is made more impressive by the fact that MBA is the only one of the schools without a physical education program.