By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

NOW that the NMI men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams that will be competing in the South Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, had been selected, coach Russ Quinn will be focusing on three key areas to prepare them for the August tournament.
“There will be more intense training and we will be focusing on three key areas: fitness, skills and mental preparedness. We will be increasing the number of practices per week plus mandatory base fitness sessions individually,” Quinn said in an email to the Variety yesterday.
The NMI men’s team is composed of Tyce Mister and Mark McDonald, who dominated the series of qualifying tournaments of the SPG.
The series of trials started in October last year and ended in the first week of February this year with Mister and McDonald winning four of the eight qualifiers.
Young guns Melissa Halaby and Nina Mosley are the members of the women’s team. They grabbed the SPG tickets after beating Laurie Peterka and Gin Gridley 21-11, 21-18 in the playoffs last Sunday.
“I will be expecting more effort and improvement in all areas of their games. I will be pushing them beyond their comfort levels to bring their games to new heights,” Quinn said.
The NMI coach added that he will create a workout for the teams.
“The fitness portion of the program will focus on strengthening and developing quickness and endurance. Although we will meet multiple times per week, the individual teams will be responsible for doing workouts on their own,” Quinn said.
“On the skills side, I will work with the teams on the basic or fundamental skills of passing, setting and spiking. All other skills come from these important basics. We will work on game time strategic plans such as blocking, recognizing which player on the other team to target and the use of elements (wind, sun and rain),” the NMI coach explained.
For scrimmages, Quinn said they are hoping to travel to Guam and set up a series of matches with the Guam National Team.
“Other than that, we have good local players that can give both teams valuable court time,” Quinn said.