The reliable duo of Tyce Mister and Russ Quinn bested seven other pairs to win the men\u2019s division title in the 2014 For the Love of Volleyball Tournament held last Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan sand court.<\/p>\n
Mister and Quinn, who teamed up twice for the CNMI and represented the Commonwealth in the 1999 South Pacific Games in Guam and the 2003 edition of the quadrennial event in Fiji, named their squad Happy Birfday and were unbeaten in the double-elimination playoffs. The pair capped its perfect run in the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association-sanctioned tournament with a 21-14 win in the finals against That\u2019s What She Said\u2019s Tyler Wisley and Rob Jordan. <\/p>\n
The victory was the second in a row for Happy Birfday against the same squad, as Mister and Quinn downed Wisley and Jordan earlier in the winner\u2019s bracket semifinals, 21-20. That\u2019s What She Said then earned another crack at Happy Birfday when it eliminated What\u2019s Clay McCullough-Stearns and Andrew Johnson in the loser\u2019s bracket semis, 21-16.<\/p>\n
The eight participating teams played in the double-elimination playoffs after a round-robin preliminary. Happy Birfday finished first in Group A to get the top seeding in the playoffs and defeated last-ranked Rob Epley and James McAllister of Ro Bo in the first round, 21-0.<\/p>\n
Bruce + Chris\u2019 Bruce Berline and Chris Nelson placed second in Group A and drew Wrecking Balls\u2019 Greg and Jeff Elliot in the opening round, winning at 21-14 to set up a quarterfinal duel against Happy Birfday in the upper half of the bracket.<\/p>\n
In the lower half, That\u2019s What She Said was paired against One Time\u2019s Leo Blaas and Leo Wania, cruising to a 21-9 win for a quarterfinal date with PJ\u2019s Jess Palacios and Jazz Roscow. PJ advanced after a 21-13 win over What, but bowed to That\u2019s What She Said to fall to the loser\u2019s bracket.<\/p>\n
PJ went on to eliminate Wrecking Balls to remain in contention, while What also stayed afloat after ousting One Time and Bruce + Chris. What and PJ then collided for the right to face That\u2019s What She Said in the last semis match with the former prevailing, 21-10.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the women\u2019s division Ticonderoga\u2019s Jennifer Douglas and Christen Steinkuller came out of the loser\u2019s bracket to clinch the championship.<\/p>\n
Ticonderoga bowed to LOL\u2019s Charnessa Lizama and Tony Yamada in the winner\u2019s bracket semis, 13-21, and had to knock out Sisters\u2019 Phalai Frink and Zena Demapan in the loser\u2019s group, 21-13, to take the second finals berth. In the title showdown, Ticonderoga defeated LOL twice, 21-13, 15-9, to steal the championship.<\/p>\n
Five other teams joined the women\u2019s division contest. The list includes Jandreo\u2019s Nicole Arenovski, A2\u2019s Angie Mister and Athena Andrews, Yuuki\u2019s Tomoko Epley and Linda Anastacio, For the Love\u2019s Laurie Peterka and Knohlynn Gechig, and Chinay\u2019s Adele Hudkins and Jennifer Tan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The reliable duo of Tyce Mister and Russ Quinn bested seven other pairs to win the men\u2019s division title in the 2014 For the Love of Volleyball Tournament held last Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan sand court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}