{"id":407960,"date":"2024-04-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=407960"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Anne-tops-girls-14-16-NMI-netters-qualify-for-Fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Anne-tops-girls-14-16-NMI-netters-qualify-for-Fiji\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne tops girls 14; 16 NMI netters qualify for Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anne Lee, younger sister of NCAA tennis star Carol, swatted her way to first place overall in the girls U14 division in the conclusion of the North Pacific Regional Championships last Saturday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.<\/p>\n

The tennis genes definitely run in the family as 13-year-old Lee dominated the field in the tourney that was held from April 8 to April 13 with an undefeated run. In the finals, she clinched the top qualifying spot with a 6-1, 6-1 card against Guam\u2019s Faith Perera.<\/p>\n

Prior to the finals, Lee racked up five wins and also won all her matches in the girls U14 doubles with partner Lina Tsukagoshi that led to first place over NMI\u2019s Vivian Chung and Jenna Pascual, 6-0, 6-0.<\/p>\n

The third qualifying spot in the girls U14 division went to Tsukagoshi and the fourth went to Guam\u2019s Leah San Augustin.<\/p>\n

In the boys U14 division, Guam\u2019s Jacob Hsioa and Jeren Devera took the Top 2 spots, while NMI\u2019s Ian Chae and Ryan Choi landed third and fourth respectively.<\/p>\n

NMI\u2019s U12 girls doubles team swept the division with three wins after defeating Guam, 3-0, Federated States of Micronesia, 3-0, and Nauru, 3-0. The team consisted of Selina Chi, Stella Choi, and Emma Lang.<\/p>\n

The NMI U12 boys doubles team, on the other hand, took second place but also qualified for Fiji.<\/p>\n

Michael Jeong, Daniel Kang, and Matt Zhu fell second to Guam\u2019s team made up of Edward Calvo, Camelo Chen, and Daniel Aki Noble.<\/p>\n

All in all, along with the boys and girls U16 winners announced yesterday\u2014boys U16 players Nason Wessel, Si Woo Lee, Henry Choi, and June Yu and girls U16 players Irin Chung and Hoo Wang, a total of 16 NMI netters qualified for the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championship in Lautoka, Fiji this July.<\/p>\n

Lee, who’s been playing tennis since she was around 4-5 years old, said the competition was \u201cpretty good. I got to meet new challengers but I got to beat them all. I\u2019m pretty thankful to my coach\u2014my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her finals matchup, she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t mind the weather. I just wanted to play. My opponent was pretty good so I was kind of tired.\u201d On qualifying for Fiji, she said, \u201cI\u2019m pretty happy about it. I\u2019m proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen-year-old Hsiao, on his win, said, \u201cI played well in all. I got a lot of balls in and I was really determined to win. I felt amazed and very happy to go to Fiji.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his experience playing against other countries, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting to play stronger players and to see how other people play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guam\u2019s junior national team head coach Ryan Horn told Saipan Tribune<\/em> that the competition was \u201cfantastic.\u201d He said there were 22 Guam players, and out of the 22, 10 were first-timers. \u201cIt is truly a great development program for these kids. These kids are also having a ton of fun making friends and making lifelong memories,\u201d said Horn.<\/p>\n

As for Guam\u2019s qualifying players, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s been a fantastic week all around. These kids have given everything they\u2019ve got. They\u2019ve worked hard for the last three months with me and their respective coaches, and they\u2019ve come and traveled and represented Guam with amazing gusto and amazing heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

One father from Guam, Manny Pangelinan, said that his daughter, Ella, who competed in the girls U12 division, is a first-time competitor. He said the tourney was \u201cgood. It\u2019s very nice for her to come out and get the opportunity to be with other kids from other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tourney that featured players from the CNMI, Guam, Nauru, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia was organized by the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association and funded by the Oceania Tennis Federation and International Tennis Federation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The girls U14 top doubles division winners, including Top 1 in the singles division, Anne Lee, right, and Top 3 Lina Tsukagoshi, second from right, during the North Pacific Regional Championships awards ceremony last Saturday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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<\/p>\n

The girls U12 division winners pose for a group photo during the North Pacific Regional Championships awards ceremony last Saturday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The boys U12 division winners pose for a photo during the North Pacific Regional Championships awards ceremony last Saturday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The boys U14 division Top 4 qualifiers pose for a group photo during the North Pacific Regional Championships awards ceremony last Saturday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne Lee, younger sister of NCAA tennis star Carol, swatted her way to first place…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407960","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}