By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

MARK McDonald and Tyce Mister continued to click as beach volleyball partners, as they topped the seventh qualifying tournament for the 13th Pacific Games last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club sandcourt.
The win was McDonald and Mister’s second in a row and third overall since they first teamed up.
McDonald ruled the first three trials with former teammate Chris Nelson, who failed to play in the fifth and succeeding qualifiers. McDonald showed up in the fourth trial with a new partner in Mister. They dominated the fourth trial, but lost in the fifth to Russian pair Sergey and Gregory Kunur.
They recovered in the sixth beating five other tandems and were unstoppable anew in the seventh besting six other teams.
McDonald and Mister were undefeated in last Sunday’s qualifier to notch back-to-back victories.
They drew a bye in the first round of the double-elimination tournament and moved to the semis after beating Peter Bocago and Kaycee Rengular, 21-9.
Bocago and Rengular won their first game against Rob Epley and Richard Butcher, 21-19.
Mister and McDonald’s foes in the semis were Dan Westphal and Bruce Berline, who whipped Derrick Tudela and Marino Pungilug, 23-21, and Guy Mosley and Luther Taylor, 21-10.
Mister and McDonald grabbed the first finals seat after downing Berline and Westphal, 21-17.
The pair of Berline and Westphal was relegated to the losers’ bracket and battled the duo of Tudela and Pungilug in the last semis match, which the latter won to earn a rematch with Mister and McDonald.
In the women’s division, four pairs joined the seventh trial with the tandem of Gin Gridley and Laurie Peterka prevailing.
Peterka and Gridley beat Heather Kennedy and Kelly Butcher in the finals, 21-19.
Gridley and Peterka advanced to the championship match after downing Angie Mister and Nikki Shyrack, 21-17, and Kennedy and Butcher, 22-21.
Kennedy and Butcher won their opening match against Nina Mosley and Melissa Halaby, 21-19, lost to Gridley and Peterka and then slipped past Mosley and Halaby in the semifinals of the losers’ bracket to gain a finals entry.
Only one qualifying trial is left before the organizing Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association proceeds with the playoffs. The last qualifier is set for Feb. 11.
The results of the series of qualifying tournaments will account for 65 percent of the selection process. Players get points in each qualifier based on how they finished in each tournament.
The remaining 35 percent will come from players’ attendance in the series of training sessions with coach Russ Quinn and the NMI mentor’s evaluation of the players.
The members of the men’s and women’s team are expected to be named next month.
They will continue their training for five months before competing in the Pacific Games, which will be held in Apia, Samoa in August.