{"id":234416,"date":"2016-08-17T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=234416"},"modified":"2016-08-17T06:00:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T20:00:33","slug":"cnmi-bets-secure-playoff-berths-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-bets-secure-playoff-berths-fiji\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI bets secure playoff berths in Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ken Song and four other CNMI players are assured of playoff berths in the 2016 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships after winning their respective matches in Fiji yesterday. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At least five CNMI players have clinched playoff tickets in their respective divisions in the 2016 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships after Day 2 pool matches were completed yesterday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

One of them was Ji Min Woo, who swept his Group 4 matches in the boys U14 singles after beating New Caledonia\u2019s Robin Seelan, 4-1, 5-4 (4) yesterday. Woo topped his pool with his 3-0 record and will be joined by Seelan (2-1) in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Also gaining a Round of 8 berth was Woo\u2019s fellow CNMI player Seung Jin Paik, who finished Group 3 with a 2-1 record after defeating Vanuatu\u2019s Zachary Sands, 4-1, 4-1, on Day 2. The Top 2 players in the four groups were given slots to the quarterfinals, which will begin today.<\/p>\n

In the boys U14 singles, players were divided into only two pools and the Top 2 in each group will earn playoffs berths. Robbie Schorr is assured one of the two semis spots in Group 1 as he remained unbeaten after the second day of the competition. Schorr got two more victories yesterday after prevailing against Tonga\u2019s Sigi Palelei, 4-0, 4-1, and American Samoa\u2019s John Paul Lim, 4-0, 4-0, to improve to a group best 4-0 mark. Schorr will go for a sweep today against CNMI teammate Sean Lee, who holds a 2-1 mark and has a chance to get a semis ticket if he upsets the former and Vanuatu\u2019s Samuel Strid (2-1) loses to Palelei.<\/p>\n

In Group 2, Ken Song is in second place with his 3-1 record following his victories over Fiji\u2019s Kelese Kofe , 4-2, 4-1, and Abikash Kumar, 4-1, 4-0. Song is likely to join Schorr to the Final Four after winning over Kofe (3-1), who has a tough final assignment in the unbeaten Tahiti player Vaitea Molinier (4-0).<\/p>\n

In the girls U14 singles, which also has two pools, either Malika Miyawaki or Asia Raulerson will advance to the semis. The two CNMI players hold similar 2-1 records for second place behind Tahiti\u2019s Lea Lamorelle (3-0). Miyawaki will face Lamorelle and Kiribati\u2019s Carolyn Mwang today, while Raulerson also takes on the latter and Vanuatu\u2019s Desiree Digno.<\/p>\n

In other results on Day 2, Carol Lee and Isabel Heras are still undefeated in the girls U16 singles to boost their semis chances.<\/p>\n

Lee has a 2-0 record in Group 1 after shutting down the Federated States of Micronesia\u2019s Sunshein Palik, 4-0, 4-0, while Heras has the same mark in Group 2 following her 5-3, 5-3 triumph over fellow CNMI player Tania Tan (1-2).<\/p>\n

In the girls U12 and U14 singles, the playoff chances of siblings Coume and Conatsu Kaga depend on the results of today\u2019s matches. Coume holds 2-1 record for second place in Group 2 behind Fiji\u2019s Saoirse Breen (3-0) and Tahiti\u2019s Kira Fong Loi (3-) and the CNMI player has to win over the latter and against Samoa\u2019s Maria Kerslake today to earn a semis ticket. Conatsu also has a 2-1 mark in Group 1 of the girls U14 singles behind Vanuatu\u2019s Rosalie Molballeh (3-0) and Samoa\u2019s Eleanor Schuster (3-0) and must pull off an upset against the latter today coupled with her win over compatriot Maria Gregoire to stay in contention.<\/p>\n

In the boys U16 singles, both Michael Ren and Vincent Tudela are out of the running as they are at the bottom of the standings in their respective pools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least five CNMI players have clinched playoff tickets in their respective divisions in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":234423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,164,12981,527],"class_list":["post-234416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cnmi","tag-fiji","tag-sigi-palelei","tag-vanuatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234416","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=234416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}