Veteran and top-ranked CNMI female netter Kana Aikawa will not be able to suit up and represent the CNMI in the upcoming 6th Micronesian Games, according to national tennis coach Jeff Race. <\/p>\n
During an interview, Race disclosed that Aikawa, who also plays for the University of Hawaii-Manoa tennis team, was looking forward to competing in the Games, but had to pull out due to requirements set by her school.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, it looks like Kana is not going to be able to play on our women\u2019s team. In order to maintain her eligibility so she can play at UH-Manoa next year, she\u2019s got to take two summer school courses,\u201d Race said. <\/p>\n
Race said both summer sessions conflict with the scheduling of the Micro Games. He, however, stressed that he made it clear during a conversation with Aikawa that she is welcome to take part if things ever clear up.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately they have two sessions that both conflict with the Micro Games, so I don\u2019t think she\u2019ll be able to play, but I told her that if she changes her plans, she\u2019s welcome to play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With that, the women\u2019s team now consists of four youth netters\u2014all of whom Race said will be very competitive in the Games. Named to the team are standouts Mayuko Arriola, Vivian Lee, Audrey Motto, and Lila Mailman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls are still in the medal hunt, even without Kana but I just kind of wanted Kana on the team,\u201d Race said. \u201cThey\u2019re young but they\u2019re pretty good. They can beat a lot of people. It\u2019s an opportunity for them to get some experience and depending on who the other countries bring, hopefully the women will be able to get a medal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race explained that with Aikawa\u2019s experience in college tournaments as well as other international competitions, she would\u2019ve served as the leader and veteran of the young group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got more pressure on them now. They don\u2019t have Kana to lead them. They got to really pick it up, and they\u2019re working hard for the competition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Like the men\u2019s team, the women\u2019s team works with Race for five sessions a week. Mailman, Lee, Arriola, and Motto train on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and have double sessions on Saturdays.<\/p>\n
Aikawa recently won all her challenge matches during a return to Saipan last December. The challenge matches were used to determine who will represent the CNMI, and Aikawa, Arriola, Lee, Motto, and Mailman were the top performers.<\/p>\n
She put up a strong charge in last year\u2019s South Pacific Mini Games, spearheading the CNMI women\u2019s team to the bronze medal match against host Palau. Aikawa has also won numerous tournaments as a junior netter on Saipan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veteran and top-ranked CNMI female netter Kana Aikawa will not be able to suit up and represent the CNMI in the upcoming 6th Micronesian Games, according to national tennis coach Jeff Race. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99939","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}