The NMI’s team for the boys and girls division 18-and-under, and boys and girl 13-and-under who had been practicing everyday in the past couple weeks now, continue to flex their forearm muscles at the Pacific Island Club tennis court trying to make the most out of the remaining days to bring themselves up to be the team to beat.
They are scheduled to leave Sunday morning with coach, Jeff Race.
NMI tea will be competing with Guam, Palau and Federated States of Micronesia.
Only two qualifying players from each territory will be selected to play in the Pacific Junior Championship that will be held in Fiji in August.
The NMI already has Ji Hoon Heo qualified for the Fiji tournament in the boys 18-and-under division. Heo who won 6-0, 6-0 during last year’s qualifier on Saipan is recognized by the International Tennis Federation to be the best player in the Pacific and that automatically sends him all the way to the championship meet.
In the Guam qualifier, NMI can only have one more from among Russel Buenaventura, Woo Suk, James Camacho and Benjie Decena to join Heo in Fiji.
All of them, according to Race have been showing excellent performance not only during practice but in the past few local tournaments.
In the girls 18-and-under, the NMI team has Dina Jones Thesel Minor and Mayuko Arriola.
In the boys 13-and-under, NMI has Rafael Jones, Jake Lee and Christian Miller who finished second, third and fourth respectively during last year’s qualifier when NMI’s seven netters made it to the top seven.
Joining them are Daniel Camacho and Lucas Nutting.
In the girls 13-and-under, Amy Arenovski, Thea Minor and Jeane Bracken will be the NMI’s bet.
Except for the boys 18-and-under where only one will have to make it, Race said he and the entire team are confident that two junior netters from each division can make in the bubble.
“We had a strong team for the last few years and have a strong team this year,” Race said adding that NMI should win every division.
Jones had managed to catch up after a long vacation in the Philippines (she could have been spending time practicing there) in the practice.
Arriola who made to the finals last year but hampered by an injury is now doing great.
Buenaventura who finished second to Heo last year is also getting one notch higher that his previous games.
Miller who has become very aggressive during practice is coming out in a winning form.
