{"id":410771,"date":"2024-07-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=410771"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Doubles-teams-snag-second-place-in-Fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Doubles-teams-snag-second-place-in-Fiji\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubles teams snag second place in Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NMI National Junior Tennis Team\u2019s doubles players snagged second place in their respective divisions of the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championship last Thursday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

The tourney\u2019s No. 2 seed in the 14U division, NMI\u2019s Anne Lee and June Yu in the 16U division won second place after their doubles matchups with their partners from Guam.<\/p>\n

Lee teamed up with Guam\u2019s Faith Perera in the girls 14U doubles division and reached the finals.<\/p>\n

The Micronesian junior netters faced off against junior players No. 1 seed Colita Hakena of Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu\u2019s Alalilo Tepa. Hakena and Tepa started off the finals hot and overpowered Lee and Perera in the first set, 6-1.<\/p>\n

Lee and Perera then doubled down in the second set to force a tie-breaking third set. While they were routed in the first, they got their rhythm and returns going to blast past Hakena and Tepa, 6-2. In the third set, the finals could\u2019ve gone either way as both duos locked in and forced super tie breakers until the end. Ultimately, Hakena and Tepa got the better of Lee and Perera and won, 10-8.<\/p>\n

In the 16U boys finals, Yu paired up with No. 2 seed Guam\u2019s Junhyuk Kevin Seo and found themselves against Tahitians and No. 1 seed Hiva Kelley and Keanau Lei Foc.<\/p>\n

The junior netters of Micronesia put up a valiant effort but succumbed to the Polynesian\u2019s chemistry as they were overwhelmed, 3-6, 1-6.<\/p>\n

In the other matches that day, for the battle for third place in the 16U girls doubles, NMI\u2019s Irin Chung and Hoo Wang teamed up and faced off against PNG\u2019s Pauline Hyun and Fiji\u2019s Sina Izumi.<\/p>\n

The NMI junior netters bounced back after a 2-6 first set loss and won the second, 6-4, to force a tie-breaker. In the final set, No. 2 seed Hyun and Izumi\u2019s firepower held off Chung and Wang in the end, 10-6.<\/p>\n

In the 14U girls\u2019 battle for third place, Lee lost to Fiji\u2019s Alexandria Chand, 2-6, 6-7. For the 16U girls doubles consolation finals, Hannah Chae and partner Leila Mercado from Guam took it to three long sets that lasted for an hour and a half. Ultimately, Samoa\u2019s Toaiva Loto and Dora Moors won, 6-2, 2-6, 10-6.<\/p>\n

For the 16U boys singles battle for 5th\/6th place, the NMI\u2019s Nason Wessel didn\u2019t complete the match against Tahiti\u2019s Mataihau Sacault, 3-6, 0-1; and in the 14U boys matchup for 7th\/8th place, the NMI\u2019s Ryan Choi was retired in his game against Guam\u2019s Jacob Hsiao, 1-3.<\/p>\n

The Junior Championship featured players from the NMI, American Samoa, Vanuatu, Guam, Samoa, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, and the Federated States of Micronesia.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s head coach, Jeff Race, said of the junior netters\u2019 performances, \u201cI\u2019m very happy for our players that reached the finals and won medals. We have a lot of things to work on going forward. These competitions are really important in identifying our team\u2019s strengths and weaknesses.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019d like to thank the players, parents, and coach Colin Ramsey for their teamwork over the last two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Second place of the 14U girls doubles, the NMI\u2019s Anne Lee, left, and partner Guam\u2019s Faith Perera, right, during the awards ceremony of the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championship last Thursday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Second place of the 16U boys doubles, the NMI\u2019s June Yu, left, and partner Guam\u2019s Junhyuk \u201cKeven\u201d Seo, center, during the awards ceremony of the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championship last Thursday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

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

The NMI National Junior Tennis Team\u2019s doubles players snagged second place in their respective divisions…<\/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-410771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410771","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=410771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}