{"id":287136,"date":"2018-10-22T06:02:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=287136"},"modified":"2018-10-22T06:02:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:02:13","slug":"gca-eyes-3-peat-agape-targets-first-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gca-eyes-3-peat-agape-targets-first-title\/","title":{"rendered":"GCA eyes 3-peat; Agape targets first title"},"content":{"rendered":"
Grace Christian Academy\u2019s Juruel Magtalas serves to Mt. Carmel School during their semis game in the 2018-2019 Commonwealth Coalition of Private Schools Association Volleyball League last Thursday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roby N. Pamintuan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grace Christian Academy 1 and Agape Christian School 1 will be squaring off in a winner-take-all finale in the middle school division of the 2018-2019 Commonwealth Coalition of Private Schools Association Volleyball League tomorrow at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Game time is at 4:30pm after the 3:30pm match between Mt. Carmel School and GCA 2 for third place honors. GCA 1 is aiming to keep the title on the Eagles\u2019 nest after GCA 2 won last year\u2019s championship against Mt. Carmel, while Agape 1 hopes to prevail in its first finals appearance in the middle school volleyball competition.<\/p>\n

Eagles head coach Cesar Libut, the mastermind behind GCA\u2019s back-to-back title wins in the division, said that more than ruling the tournament again, their goal is to use their talents in volleyball to serve a higher purpose. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur major goal in this volleyball program is to use the talents God has given us to bring glory to His name,\u201d Libut said. <\/p>\n

When asked about the keys to success of the Eagles\u2019 middle school volleyball program, Libut attributed them to the full support of the school administration, the coaching team\u2019s partnership with the players\u2019 parents, and the total commitment and dedication of every player, coach, and trainer involved in GCA\u2019s volleyball program.<\/p>\n

As for Agape, Yang Pang, who coached the team in their semis win over GCA 2 in absence of his father Cok Pang, was thankful for the opportunity to make it to the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPraise the Lord for giving us this opportunity to go to the finals. We couldn\u2019t do anything without Him. Thank God for giving us this opportunity to play and have healthy bodies to play,\u201d Pang said. <\/p>\n

Yang Pang added that many of their players are newcomers and sophomores and they are learning a lot about volleyball as they put in the time and effort needed to advance through their playoff bracket. <\/p>\n

With the finals set, GCA 1 and Agape 1 have different approaches in their preparation for the championship game.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, our team is focusing on defense. Hopefully, we will be able to counter Agape\u2019s strong offense,\u201d Libut said. \u201cThe team is really excited. We may have a grand slam this year. They are ready to give their best for this championship game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing we are focusing on is movement on the court. If they don\u2019t get to the ball, then there\u2019s no way to pass it effectively. They need to practice facing the target and passing the target with the volleyball in front of them instead of going for those 50-50 side passes,\u201d Yang Pang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Christian Academy 1 and Agape Christian School 1 will be squaring off in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,746,698,23068],"class_list":["post-287136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gymnasium","tag-carmel-school","tag-gca","tag-yang-pang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287136","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}