(Northern Marianas Sports Association) — Long-time NMI National Tennis Team coach Jeff Race is confident of the squad’s medal chances in the 2024 Micronesian Games that will be held in the Marshall Islands from June 15 to 24, 2024.
“We are definitely going to be in the medal hunt,” Race said.
Race is bringing in a full team in the Marshall Islands with 2019 Pacific Games and 2021 Pacific Mini Games medalist Robbie Schorr leading the men’s squad and former collegiate standout Isabel Heras taking charge in the women’s division. Completing the team are players La Hunn Lam, Colin Ramsey, Siwoo Lee, Hannah Chae, Hoo Wang, and Irin Chung and team manager John Martin Bradley.
The NMI will be back in the tennis competition after missing the 2014 edition of the Micro Games in Pohnpei and following the exclusion of tennis in the calendar of events for the 2018 Micro Games in Yap. The last time NMI players saw action in the Micro Games was in 2010 in Palau with the squad collecting 3 gold medals, 2 silvers, and 4 bronzes.
Race had his last stint with the NMI as a player in the 2010 Micronesian Games where he completed the islands’ sweep in the men’s singles (Todd Montgomery and Peter Loyola winning the gold and silver).
According to Race, all members of the team bound for the Marshall Islands next month are doing well in training and are not lacking in game experiences so they are battle ready for the medals at stake in this year’s Micro Games.
Starting this week Lee, Chae, Chung and Wang will be playing in the J30 Saipan-Northern Marianas Junior Championships — an event under the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Calendar. The NMI junior players will be up against representatives of Korea, Australia, Japan, Guam, Hong Kong, and Great Britain. Ramsey, for his part, is a regular in local competitions and played for the NMI in the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands last November, while Lam has been playing in off-island tournaments with the recent one at the 2024 Citadel Guam World Tour where he got his first ITF points.
For next month’s Micronesian Games, the NMI National Tennis Team will be up against perennial rival Guam, host Marshall Islands, Palau, Yap, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Nauru, and Kiribati. Only Chuuk did not list a team for the tennis competition that will run from June 20 to 23 at the NCD and USP Tennis Courts in Majuro.
“I believe our biggest challenger will be Guam,” Race said.
Guam has initially listed entries only for the men’s division, while the rest of the participating countries and states have entries both in the women’s and men’s divisions. Tennis will have the team event in men’s and women’s and the men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles games.
The NMI National Team Tennis is part of the 114-member delegation of Team Marianas, which is supported by the following sponsors: Mariana Express Lines Pte. Ltd, Skechers, Joeten Daidai Foundation, Triple J Motors, E-Land Group, D&Q, TakeCare Insurance, IT&E, Bank of Guam, Black Construction Corporation, Dial-Rent-To-Own, RNV Constructions, GPPC/Apex Builders, Matson, Chinese Association of Saipan, Y.K. Corporation, LaoLao Bay Golf & Resort, P&A Corporation, Jose & Ruri Ayuyu Foundation, and Zoom Café.
