Power-Up versus Strykers in finals
The 2020 championship for the CNMI’s indigenous sport of Rocball would be played between Power-Up and the Strykers today at the Marianas High School Gymnasium in Susupe.
Strykers advanced to the best-of-five Micronesia Rocball Championship against Power-Up after beating previously undefeated Laly Four in the semifinals, 2-1.
The Aces came very close to knocking Power-Up out of the championship series in their third game loss by 42-41. Power-Up had to come from behind in Rocball’s quarter/set system to win the game and forge the championship matchup against Strykers. The score was Power-Up 2, The Aces 1.
In the semifinals of this year’s championship games, the Strykers edged out Laly Four in 2-point serves, 22-21, as neither team scored a backcourt 2-point play and the Strykers outscored Laly Four in 3-point goals, 7-5. Both of these teams were scunked in the semifinals or lost a set with zero points scored. The Strykers scunked Laly Four twice and The Aces scunked Power-Up once.
The Rocball championship games will be held in the MHS Gym starting today, Jan. 21. The staring time for the games will be at 11:45am until 12:30pm and possibly longer.
Strykers are made up of Isaac Balbin, Raylyn, Ian Kaniki, Lawerence Laniyo, Rotsed Fabian, Kirro Williams, Melvin Menchor, and Able Amu. Power-Up players, meanwhile, are Jerico Castro, Wency Castillo, Madellen Narciso, Nilo Calimay, Ariel Moises, Futima Monterubio, Jasper Perez, and Daniel Park.
Teams that include a girl on court to play are allowed six players. Teams that don’t have a girl playing are only allowed five players, according to Rocball founder James Feger.
He’s calling it the Micronesia Rocball Championship “because there are a lot of players from the different island nations in Micronesia playing on the different teams.”
This year’s 2020 Rocball tournament had 10 teams and they played in a round-robin, three-game elimination system. A team that lost three games was eliminated. The names of the teams were GTA (Get That Ace), Strykers, The Aces, Power-Up, Infinity War, WBI (We Beat It), Wanpipty, Riot, Laly Four, and Play 5. The semifinals started two weeks ago and ended last Wednesday. Power-Up won 2 out of 3 against the Aces and the Strykers won 2 out of 3 against Laly Four.
