{"id":280579,"date":"2018-07-23T06:02:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T20:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=280579"},"modified":"2018-07-23T06:02:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T20:02:23","slug":"jr-tennis-squad-starts-title-defense-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jr-tennis-squad-starts-title-defense-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Jr. tennis squad starts title defense today"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_280580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-280580\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pojcpix.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-280580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maria Gregoire is in Fiji to compete for the CNMI Junior Tennis Team in the 2018 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The CNMI Junior Tennis Team will begin its bid for an unprecedented Nations Cup three-peat when it plays in the 2018 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji today.<\/p>\n<p>The Jeff Race-squad will have 13 players competing in the U12, U14, and U16 singles and doubles events against 16 other member-nations in the Oceania Tennis Federation. The winner of the Nations Cup will be determined by how players from each nation finish in both the singles and doubles competitions. <\/p>\n<p>Robbie Schorr, Ken Song, Sean Lee, and Sam Ryu will be the CNMI\u2019s bets in the boys U16 age group, while Malika Miyawaki, Conatsu Kaga, and Maria Gregoire will be suiting up for the women\u2019s team. In the U14, the Commonwealth will be pinning its hopes on Ji Min Woo, Seung Jin Paik, Coume Kaga, and Hyejin Elliot, while the U12 squad has Anthony Gregoire and David Kwon as members. <\/p>\n<p>Schorr, Lee, Conatsu, and Woo have been in Fiji for more than month, working out at the regional training facility there, while Race left Saipan with other members of the team last Friday and arrived in Fiji last Saturday. Coume came all the way from Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Coume\u2019s sister, Conatsu, will duel No. 4 seed and Tahiti\u2019s Lea Lamorelle in her first game in pool play (Group D) on Court 1 at Nadove Park.<\/p>\n<p>On Court 2, the No. 4 seed Song will take on another Tahiti player in Mohearii Polin in Group D, while the former\u2019s three teammates will see action on Court 3. Elliot will face the Solomon Island\u2019s Prudence Bird, Lee will take on Vanuatu\u2019s Warea Tigona, and Maria Gregore will also meet another  Vanuatu bet in Desiree Signo.<\/p>\n<p>On Court 5, Ryu will square of with No. 2 and Vanuatu\u2019s Clement Mainguy, while Malika Miyawaki will have her first game against Samoa\u2019s Luisa Tuasi\u2019l.<\/p>\n<p>In the U12 division (team event format), Anthony Gregoire and Kwon will be tested by Fiji\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<p>Schorr, the No. 2 seed in the boys U16 singles, won\u2019t be playing until tomorrow. He is in Group C with Tahiti\u2019s Phillip Warren and the Solomon Islands\u2019 Junior Micky. Woo and Paik will also have their first match on Thursday with the former in Group B with the Federated State of Micronesia\u2019s Deavyn Etscheit, the Solomon Islands\u2019 Lachian Guba, and Tahiti\u2019s Ariitea Cotti-Helme and the latter in Group D with Tahiti\u2019s Meheannu Larson, Samoa\u2019s Raphael Tapusoa, FSM\u2019s Jones George, and New Caledonia\u2019s Tiaga Lopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CNMI Junior Tennis Team will begin its bid for an unprecedented Nations Cup three-peat&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":280580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[164,1816,18050,527],"class_list":["post-280579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fiji","tag-malika-miyawaki","tag-nations-cup","tag-vanuatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280579","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=280579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}