{"id":277531,"date":"2018-06-05T06:02:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T20:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=277531"},"modified":"2018-06-05T06:02:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T20:02:32","slug":"cnmi-edges-cook-islands-moves-into-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-edges-cook-islands-moves-into-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI edges Cook Islands, moves into finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_277532\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-277532\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/pacificpix-1.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-277532\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the CNMI men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams pose for a photo during the opening ceremony for the Inaugural Nations Cup Pacific last week in Fiji. (Ocveania Tennis Federation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The CNMI showed grace under pressure after eking out a 2-1 victory over the Cook Islands in the playoff round in the women\u2019s division team event of the Inaugural Nations Cup Pacific yesterday in Fiji.<\/p>\n<p>Carol Lee and Isabel Heras teamed up in securing the close win and a finals berth for the CNMI, as they defeated Tamara Anderson and Britanny Teei, 6-3, 6-1. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the first singles game, Lee extended her winning run in the tournament after dominating Teei, 6-1, 6-1. Then in the second singles game, Anderson topped Heras, 6-2, 6-1, to keep the Cook Islands in contention. However, Heras made up for the loss quickly with the help of Lee as they swept their foes in the deciding doubles match.<\/p>\n<p>With the victory, the CNMI earned the right to face Samoa, which is also undefeated in the tournament following a 2-0 triumph over Oceania Women\u2019s Combined 2 yesterday. Steffi Carruthers and Eleanor Schuster delivered the pair of wins for Samoa after they outclassed Papua New Guinea\u2019s Patricia Apisah, 6-0, 6-2, and Tuvalu\u2019s Alesi Molotii, 6-2, 6-3.<\/p>\n<p>The CNMI-Samoa title game today will be played at 8:30am.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the men\u2019s division, the CNMI also won over Tonga, 2-0. The Commonwealth crew made up of Robbie Schorr, Ken Song, and Jimin Woo, are playing for the No. 9 to 14 rankings after missing the Top 8 cut.<\/p>\n<p>Schorr defeated Filipe Huni in the first singles match, 6-2, 6-1, while Woo was handed the win in the second singles after Siale Fatai retired in the deciding super tiebreaker third set due to fatigue. Woo lost the opening set, 2-6, but remained in the race after taking the second, 6-4. The CNMI junior player was then up in the third set, 1-0, when Fatai decided not to continue playing.<\/p>\n<p>Woo and company will see action in their last game today when they duel American Samoa, which also swept Tuvalu yesterday, 2-0.<\/p>\n<p>In the finale, it will be Tahiti versus Vanuatu. Tahiti gained the first finals berth after blanking the Solomon Islands, while Vanuatu posted a similar win over the Cook Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CNMI showed grace under pressure after eking out a 2-1 victory over the Cook&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":277532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,884,164,2101],"class_list":["post-277531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cnmi","tag-cook-islands","tag-fiji","tag-tuvalu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277531","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=277531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}