{"id":293039,"date":"2019-02-01T06:06:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T20:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=293039"},"modified":"2019-02-01T06:06:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T20:06:52","slug":"mcs-agape-reach-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mcs-agape-reach-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"MCS, Agape reach semis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_293040\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-293040\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/copsapix-6.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-293040\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mt. Carmel School\u2019s Louisa Han hits the ball during their playoff game against Saipan International School 2 in the CCOPSA volleyball league yesterday at the MCS court in Chalan Kanoa. (Roby N. Pamintuan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mount Carmel School\u2019s varsity team and Agape Christian School advanced to the semifinals of the girls division of the 2018-2019 Commonwealth Coalition of Private Schools Association Volleyball League after sweeping their respective opponents yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>The Lady Knights were the first ones to earn a semis ticket, as they eliminated Saipan International School 2 at the former\u2019s home turf, 25-19, 25-15.<\/p>\n<p>After a close win in the first set, MCS Varsity starters fought through heightened wind conditions and exhibited their versatility and exemplary teamwork to notch a much easier victory. Throughout the game, Lady Knights coach Shawn Davis constantly reminded her frontliners to be consistent with their spikes and tips. This aggressive strategy proved to be too much to handle for the Lady Geckos, as their receivers frequently mishandled the bumps and passes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to play safe, but you should always kind of think of it in an attacking position,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe had an aggressive approach, but we still had to play it smart and safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the first set, Princess Alcantara and Angela Jun got MCS into a strong start after excelling from the server\u2019s position, with the former racking up four consecutive serves and the latter slamming three uninterrupted over-handers. Lady Knights captain Louisa Han led by example with her back-to-back serves at the 23-19 mark to seal the deal in the opening set.<\/p>\n<p>With the victory, the Lady Knights set up a semis game against a much tougher Lady Geckos crew\u2014SIS 1\u2014and Davis is hoping to see the same aggressiveness from her players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey need to do exactly what they did today\u2014play it smart, and play aggressively,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the tailend of the playoff doubleheader at the MCS court, the No. 5 seed Agape ended MCS Junior Varsity\u2019s playoff run after pulling off an upset over the No.  4 rank team, 25-12, 25-21. <\/p>\n<p>Agape had only one win going into the playoffs and narrowly beat SIS 2 in the tiebreak for the No. 5 spot, while MCS JV earned a 4-6 slate in the preliminary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe girls are so happy,\u201d Agape coach Ana Arellano said after stunning the Lady Knights. \u201cThey can\u2019t stop talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next up for Agape is the heavily favored Grace Christian Academy\u2014the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Lady Eagles will host the Lady Torchbearers in the semis match today at 3:30pm. The other semis game between SIS 1 and MCS Varsity will also take place at 3:30pm at the Lady Geckos court in As Lito.<\/p>\n<p>In the boys division semis, GCA will play MCS today at the Eagles court in Navy Hill, while SIS will host Agape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mount Carmel School\u2019s varsity team and Agape Christian School advanced to the semifinals of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":293041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1181],"class_list":["post-293039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mcs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293039","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=293039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}