{"id":353374,"date":"2021-10-11T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=353374"},"modified":"2021-10-11T06:00:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T20:00:25","slug":"lady-eagles-1-secure-no-1-seed-in-hs-v-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/lady-eagles-1-secure-no-1-seed-in-hs-v-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Eagles 1 secure No. 1 seed in HS v-ball"},"content":{"rendered":"
Grace Christian Academy 1\u2019s Hye Jin Elliott spikes the ball against Marianas High School 1 in their much-anticipated showdown in the NMIVA-PSS Interscholastic Girls High School Volleyball League 2021-2022 last Thursday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grace Christian Academy 1 has locked on to the No. 1 seed in the playoffs for the NMIVA-PSS Interscholastic Girls High School Volleyball League 2021-2022 season after beating fellow erstwhile undefeated team Marianas High School 1 last Thursday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

The Lady Eagles 1 didn\u2019t waste time in their conquest of the Lady Dolphins 1, sweeping the very team breathing down their becks in the team standings. The first set was a nip-and-tuck affair before GCA 1 managed to eke out a 25-19 win. <\/p>\n

In the second set, MHS 1 seemed determined to force a rubber set and led early. However, GCA 1 managed to weather the storm and gradually put some distance between themselves and their rivals. <\/p>\n

Then it was GCA 1 setter and team leader Katriel Saures\u2019 turn to serve. The six-time champion of various high school volleyball leagues put down the hammer and literally carried the whole team behind her back, as MHS 1 didn\u2019t have an answer to her service game. <\/p>\n

The Lady Eagles 1 seemingly scored 7-8 points behind Saures\u2019 superb service game and knocked down the set and game point when the Lady Dolphins 1 failed anew to return her service as they went on to emerge victorious in the battle of unbeatens, 25-16, in the second set.<\/p>\n

GCA 1 head coach Cesar Libut jokingly said they didn\u2019t want to prolong the game anymore that\u2019s why they ended the game in two sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to win without complications anymore and we just wanted to secure the No. 1 seed in the playoffs that starts on Friday,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Libut added that Saures has been their best weapon all throughout the season because with her at center, GCA 1 always controls the ball on offense as everyone always bumps the ball to her after receiving it.<\/p>\n

In neutralizing MHS 1\u2019s center\u2019s powerful spikes, Libut revealed that they specifically asked a male volleyball players to practice with them so his players would get accustomed to stopping powerful spikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepared for their spiker. We scouted them very well. She\u2019s their only offense. We asked for the help of a men\u2019s volleyball player who is a strong spiker and we just practiced receiving his hard spikes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from the brilliant Suares, who has been part of the Lady Eagles\u2019 varsity squad since sixth grade, the rest of the GCA 1 roster includes Karina Dilse, Clerrise Dacumos, Hye Jin Elliott, Soleil Lamar, Vicky Wang, Mint Karsuaythong, Eunice Pagaduan, and Allyssa Omampo. <\/p>\n

With the win against MHS 1, Saures and company raised their record to 11-0, while exacting the Lady Dolphins 1 their first loss in nine games.<\/p>\n

Other games Thursday saw, Mt. Carmel School 3 improve to 6-5 after narrowly beating sister team MCS 2, 25-20, 27-25, 15-13. The loss dropped MCS 2 to 2-7.<\/p>\n

MCS 1 also was victorious after beating Kagman High School, 25-17, 25-15. The win raised its record to 8-3, while KHS fell to 2-7. MHS 3 also hiked its record to 4-7 following an easy 25-19, 25-13 victory over winless Saipan Southern High School, who is now at 0-9.<\/p>\n

SSHS 2\u2019s sister team, SSHS 1, faired a little better after edging Saipan International School 2, 25-14, 26-24, 17-15. SSHS 1 is now at 3-6, while SIS 2 is now at 2-8. The final game of the day then saw MCS 1 pull out a 26-24, 25-17 victory over GCA 2 to improve to 8-3, while the latter dropped to a .500 win-loss record at 5-5.<\/p>\n

Pool play concludes tomorrow with a rare eight-game schedule. MCS 3 and KHS and MHS 1 and MCS 2 will see action in the 4:30pm first games. The 5:30pm second games will then feature GCA 1 vs MHS 3\tand SSHS 2 vs MHS 2. The penultimate sets of games at 6:15pm will have SSHS 1 taking on SIS 1 and MCS 2 squaring off against SSHS 2. The 7pm matchups will then GCA 2 testing the mettle of KHS and MHS 2 duking it out with sister team MHS 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Christian Academy 1 has locked on to the No. 1 seed in the playoffs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":353376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5044,21248],"class_list":["post-353374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-hs","tag-lady-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353374","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}