{"id":310748,"date":"2019-10-25T06:04:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T20:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=310748"},"modified":"2019-10-25T06:04:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T20:04:40","slug":"black-panther-secures-first-finals-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/black-panther-secures-first-finals-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Panther secures first finals seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_310749\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-310749\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/DSC_0385.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-310749\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther\u2019s Riel Paynor receives a shot from The As\u2019 Guardians during their semis game in the Avengers Volleyball League  last Wednesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.  (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Black Panther marched into the finals of the Avengers Volleyball League  after sweeping The As\u2019 Guardians in their semis game last Wednesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. <\/p>\n<p>Though the Black Panther took only two sets to prevail against The As\u2019 Guardians in the winners bracket semifinals of the double-elimination playoffs, the victory did not come in handy. In the first set, the Black Panther needed extra points to win, 27-25. The second set was another close match with the Black Panther posting a 25-21 triumph to secure the first finals berth and a twice-to-beat advantage in the championship round.<\/p>\n<p>The As\u2019 Guardians, despite the loss, still have a shot at a finals ticket, if it wins against the Ol\u2019Aces in the loser\u2019s bracket semifinals, which will be played tonight before the finale.<\/p>\n<p>The Ol\u2019Aces earned the right to face The As\u2019 Guardians for the second and last finals seat after outclassing We Are Groot in three sets. The Ol\u2019Aces lost a tough first set, 23-25, but remained in contention after getting the second, 25-19. The Ol\u2019Aces then completed the come-from-behind win after prevailing in the deciding third set, 15-11. <\/p>\n<p>Before slipping past We Are Groot, the Ol\u2019Aces eliminated Iron Spike, 25-22, 25-12. We Are Groot, on the other hand, stayed in contention after sweeping Straight Outta Knowhere, 25-21, 25-20, in another match in the losers\u2019 bracket.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_310750\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-310750\" style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/avengerspasapix-237x300.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-310750\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ol\u2019Aces\u2019 Ketson \u201cJack\u201d Kabiriel leaps for a shot during their game against We Are Groot in the losers bracket of the Avengers Volleyball League last Wednesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Kimberly A. Bautista)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Black Panther marched into the finals of the Avengers Volleyball League after sweeping The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":308649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310748","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}