{"id":338789,"date":"2021-02-19T06:06:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T20:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=338789"},"modified":"2021-02-19T06:06:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T20:06:37","slug":"gca-finishes-strong-mhs-1-mt-carmel-2-gain-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gca-finishes-strong-mhs-1-mt-carmel-2-gain-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"GCA finishes strong; MHS 1, Mt. Carmel 2 gain advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"
Grace Christian Academy\u2019s Steven Balakrisha serves to Mt. Carmel School 1 during their game in the opening week of the 2020-2021 Public School System Interscholastic 4v4 Beach Volleyball League at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan sand courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grace Christian Academy won its remaining games in the preliminary round of the 2020-2021 Public School System Interscholastic 4v4 Beach Volleyball League to join Marianas High School 1 and Mt. Carmel School 1 and 2 in the Top 4 rankings in the boys division.<\/p>\n

The Eagles swept their final five games in the prelims last Saturday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan sand courts to end up with an 8-1 record and place second in the team standings. GCA\u2019s lone loss in the prelims was against the No. 1 seed MCS 1 (9-0) during the opening week of the competition. <\/p>\n

A Mt. Carmel School 2 player bends down for a return during their match against Saipan International School. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the defeat, GCA\u2019s William Kim, Steven Balakrishna, Ryan Daproza, Anthony Deleon Guerrero, Christian Pamintuan, and Akira Ora downed MHS 3, 21-13; Saipan International School 2, 21-5; Agape Christian School 2, 21-12; MHS 1, 21-17; and MCS 2, 21-15 to gain one of the Top 4 spots heading into next week\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Eagles, MCS 1, MHS 1 (6-3), and MCS 2 (6-3) will get a bye in the first round of the double-elimination playoffs, leaving the No. 5 to No. 12 teams to compete in the Feb. 26 matches. Tinian and Rota were automatically ranked No. 5 and 6, respectively, as they did not play in the prelims, while SIS 2 (5-4) is at No. 7 and is followed by Agape 1 (4-5), SIS 1 (3-6), MHS 2 (2-7), Agape 2 (2-7), and MHS 3 (1-8). The winners in the battle of lower seeded teams will move to the second round and challenge the Top 4 squads.<\/p>\n

Girls division playoffs today<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, the girls division playoff round will begin this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Matches won\u2019t start until 5:30pm, as PSS will first hold the parade of teams at 5pm. The 12 squads are asked to be at the venue by 4:45pm. After the parade, Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association, which is helping PSS run the competition, will hold a brief ceremony at 5:15pm to honor its outgoing board members.<\/p>\n

A Saipan International School 2 player hits the sand after receiving a serve from Marianas High School 1, while his teammates look on during their game in the 2020-2021 Public School System Interscholastic 4v4 Beach Volleyball League at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 5:30pm, four teams will be on the sand courts to start the playoff matches. Mt. Carmel 1 will meet SIS 2, while the other game will be an all-Dolphins affair with MHS 2 squaring off against MHS 3.<\/p>\n

The playoff matches will continue tomorrow with the finals tentatively set for 12pm and it will follow a best-of-three sets format with the first two sets a race-to-21 game, while the last and deciding (if needed) will be race to 15.<\/p>\n

MHS 1, GCA 1 and 2, and SIS 1 are the early favorites going into this weekend\u2019s playoffs, as they finished in the Top 4 in the preliminary round. MHS 1 was undefeated and had a 9-0 record, while GCA 2 earned an 8-2 mark, and SIS 1 and GCA 1 posted 7-2 and 6-3 slates, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Christian Academy won its remaining games in the preliminary round of the 2020-2021 Public…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":338804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[698,365],"class_list":["post-338789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-gca","tag-mhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338789","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=338789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}