{"id":231575,"date":"2016-07-06T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=231575"},"modified":"2016-07-06T06:00:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:00:31","slug":"lopez-play-collegiate-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/lopez-play-collegiate-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"Lopez to play collegiate tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mikayla Lopez, seen here playing in the 2015 Northern Marianas Junior Championships, will be suiting up for the New Mexico Military Institute this year. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former CNMI junior tennis player Mikayla Lopez is leaving Saipan next month to begin a new chapter in her student-athlete life.<\/p>\n

Lopez received a full athletic scholarship from New Mexico Military Institute\u2014the same school that recruited NCAA Division II-bound and former CNMI top junior player Thea Minor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful and honored to receive a full scholarship from NMMI. I will not only be representing NMMI in tennis, but also in cross country,\u201d the Marianas High School graduate said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank coach Dan O\u2019Connell for giving me this wonderful opportunity to play at a collegiate level to further improve my skills,\u201d Lopez added.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell was the former and first ITF Pacific Oceania developmental officer before he was named head coach of the Bronco women\u2019s tennis team in 2013. He made repeated visits to Saipan as he had been helping NMMI find talents from the Pacific even before he accepted the coaching post from the school three years ago. Minor was his first recruit from the Commonwealth and after the former completed her two-year stint with the Bronco, O\u2019Connell also helped the CNMI player move to Henderson State University\u2014a NCAA Division II school in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s new squad, on the other hand, competes in Division I of the National Junior College Athletics Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt NMMI, I am looking forward to taking classes in pre-dental hygiene. After two years, I hope to gain another full scholarship to either a Division I or II university. At NMMI I will also be able to interact with different people from other places and eventually make new friends,\u201d said Lopez, who is excited and at the same time a bit nervous of her move from Saipan to the mainland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving from a small island to New Mexico is a big change for me. However, I have talked to Thea countless times so that I would be prepared physically and mentally. She provided me with a lot of words of encouragement, telling me I should not worry because her friends and former teammates will help guide me at NMMI,\u201d the 19-year-old player said. \u201cShe also said that I will love how friendly the environment is. The teachers and students are like families. One major struggle I might face though is waking up at 5:30am everyday for training, but Thea said I will get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez will be teaming up with Papua New Guinea\u2019s Lorish Puluspene and the Federate States of Micronesia\u2019s Amanda Hawkins, who are both familiar faces to the former having seen them play in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji, and two others.<\/p>\n

\u201cLorish will still be there for a year and there\u2019s a girl from Ghana (Francesca Nyarko) that I will be meeting her soon. They are very good players and I know we will make a good team this year,\u201d the newest Bronco member added.<\/p>\n

The former CNMI junior player won\u2019t be leaving Saipan until Aug. 2, but at this early, she is missing the members of the tennis community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will forever miss playing for the CNMI junior tennis team. I will miss my friends and coaches\u2019 constant support. If it weren\u2019t for them, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today,\u201d the 2012 NMSA Female Student Athlete of the Year said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former CNMI junior tennis player Mikayla Lopez is leaving Saipan next month to begin a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":231579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4081,26,2871,2340],"class_list":["post-231575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-amanda-hawkins","tag-cnmi","tag-mikayla-lopez","tag-nmmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231575","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}