Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival - a Go!

NMIVA President, Laurie Peterka, met with MVA, Hyatt Regency Saipan and Fiesta Resort & Spa this week to firm up plans for the 2010 Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival - all systems GO!

Intense planning and organization await the event committee, but everyone is very excited and committed. This year's event will be a little different in that we are moving back to the Cup's birthplace... Micro Beach. Out title sponsors include Marianas Visitors Authority, Delta Airlines, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Fiesta Resort & Spa, Pacific Islands Club Saipan and of course, NMIVA.

Tentative Events Schedule:
February 22: Pros begin arriving
February 23: Free day
February 24: Free day
February 25: Pros visit schools, Sports Wrappers interview with Bob Coldeen
February 26: Exhibition Match (location TBA)
February 27: Pool Play (location TBA)
February 28: Double elimination tournament (Hyatt & Fiesta courts)
March 1: Free day
March 2: Pros begin departing
March 6: Marianas Kids Cup (PIC)

Stay tuned... more info to come! http://www.nmivolleyball.org/

Note: Bolded dates are fixed and will not change; only locations are subject to change.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

2010 Marianas Cup, Saipan Marathon, Saipan Sportsfest

With the successful completion of the Saipan Sportsfest (Xterra Saipan Championships & 20th Annual Tagaman Triathlon), MVA and Taga Inc. have set the dates for the 2010 events.

Marianas Cup will return to the last weekend of February: 2/26~2/28/10.

The Saipan Marathon will move from January to March 6, 2010. This year, there were over 250 participants in the marathon, 1/2 marathon and 10km run.

The Saipan Sportsfest will move back to March: 3/12~3/21/10.
March 13, 2010 will feature the 9th Annual Saipan Xterra Championships
March 20, 2010 will feature the 21st Annual Tagaman Triathlon (distances & course may change slightly)
March 27, 2010 is targeted for Guam's XTERRA race!

Saipan is an island that is full of events and activities for visitors and residents alike.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Great Marianas Cup Photos by PIC Repeater Guest

The Murray Family returned to PIC for their annual visit to Saipan. They have timed their holidays to coincide with the Marianas Cup so we're very appreciative of Martin's photography skills. See link for great Marianas Cup Photos!

http://www.pixbymartin.com/

Monday, March 23, 2009

Hafadai Magazine features Marianas Cup!

Hafadai Magazine, a local Saipan publication, is featuring he Marianas Kids' Cup on the FRONT COVER of its April issue! The photo includes the winning team "Sons of the Beaches" along with NMIVA board members: Laurie Peterka, Kim Peterson, Mili Saiki and Russ Quinn.

There's also a one page story on the Marianas Cup and Kids' Cup.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

2nd Annual Kids' Marianas Cup


Congratulations to Team Sons of the Beaches on their championship win! They each received personally autographed Phil Dalhausser balls and IT&E cell phones, text cards.
Team Lamers played many games to reach the finals and place second. They each won personally autographed Phil Dalhausser balls, IT&E text card and a
"PIC Waterpark Pass for Two".

Team Lamat Pwi Pwi coached by Robin Eugenio played well for their 3rd place win. They each won a "PIC Waterpark Pass for Two"and IT&E text cards.

4th Place winners received LISS backpacks & IT&E text cards.

The 5th place team won LISS t-shirts and IT&E text cards.
Team Lamers going for the block.
Barbara, Elijah and Sean Maycock of SDA School, cheering for their students in the Finals.
"Psycho" Yoshida eyeing the ball as Coach Amy looks on.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Thank you to all for a most memorable Marianas Cup!

On behalf of the 17th Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude for all the sponsors who ultimately made the tournament the most successful Marianas Cup to date.

A new record was set for the amount of sponsors, spectators, players, and the quality of play intensified to an all time high. Not to mention, the diversity of countries the players came from was greater than past years. Nineteen women’s teams and 34 men’s teams participated in the three-day event. There were also 10 teams entered in the horseshoe tournament on Sunday. Four professional volleyball players from Japan, 4 from Korea and the 4 from the US, including Gold Olympian Phil Dalhausser made the event a memorable one. Phil not only won 2nd place with amateur partner and local MHS Teacher, Tyce Mister, he was gracious to sign hundreds of autographs, T-shirts, take photos and display his Gold Medal at the awards banquet. In total, 20 from Japan, 13 players from Guam, 2 from Italy, 9 players from California, 4 from Korea, and 1 from Bali flew in for the event and joined the 57 Saipan participants.

On Wednesday, the US pros toured three schools and on Thursday, they hosted a Kids’ Clinic together with the Japanese and Korean pros for a record of 60+ kids. On Friday evening, the local community of approximately 400 people came out in force to watch the 6 exhibition games among the Japanese, US and Korean pros. The US remained undefeated in all matches. The fans cheered enthusiastically and witnessed elite beach volleyball games, not normally available in Micronesia. Immediately following the match, all twelve pros split up via a raffle drawing and played with amateur participants over the rest of the weekend. On the ladies side, the Japanese duo of Miki Yoko and Chie Iwana played error free volleyball and took down the Italian competition to win the title for the 2nd consecutive year while Paul Baxter and California player, Hugo Dooner, won the men’s title. Paul Baxter won back-to-back on his 6th return to the Marianas Cup.

This year Beach Volleyball Japan, sponsored by NWA and PIC was present to capture all events ranging from the Pro-welcome BBQ to the Exhibition, Tournament and Awards Banquet. As such, the CNMI will be featured in a 4 page spread in an upcoming issue. Total ad value is $26,400. For the first time, Korea’s Maeil Business (1 page) and ABROAD (6 pages) sent two journalists to feature the Marianas Cup. Total ad value from Korea is $24,846. The Korean media were sponsored by NMIVA, Asiana and PIC.

In addition, Marianas Cup had its own blog http://www.marianascup.blogspot.com/ and messages were posted on the popular network site, Facebook. Marianas Cup also had its own information page on PIC’s Japan and Korea’s websites & blogs, RNC’s volleyball tour package and other sites such as http://www.asianvolleyball.org/beach/2009-02-10/234929.html and http://www.mycnmi.com/. In the CNMI, the Marianas Cup was featured in 22 print and online articles in the Saipan Tribune and Marianas Variety.

There were over $24,000 in cash and prizes awarded and several fans were made happy through the annual raffle drawing. Without the charitable efforts of sponsors, an event like this would not be possible. Once again, we would like to thank you for your generosity, and look forward to an even more spectacular Marianas Cup in 2010, where all of the pros have vowed to return.

Tieing for 5th Place: Hatsui Yui & Chie Inoue and Aurora Santos & Shinako Tanaka ($200)
The 4th place finishers, Keiko Urata & Hiroko Matsuyama were unable to attend the Awards. They won $500!
3rd Place: Hiroyo Kaneda & Megumi Murakami ($1000)
2nd Place: Federica Tonon & Daniela Gatteli ($2000)
1st Place Winners for a 2nd consecutive year!
Yoko Miki & Chie Iwana
Yoko also won MVP!
Tomo Obata won a special $500 NWA travel certificate for his loyalty in returning to the Marians Cup time and again. He not only volunteers to referee, clean the courts and set the nets, he also translates and helped in the Kids' Clinic. Thank you, Tomo san, for your kindness.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Congratulations to the 2009 Men's Marianas Cup Winners!

Congratulations to all the participants of the 17th Annual Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival! This record event would not have been possible without our valuable sponsors, especially PIC Saipan, for providing over $50,000 in complimentary rooms & meals for the pros, media and return winners in addition to venue, staff and supplies.

This year, the Marianas Cup had 49 participants from the US mainland, Japan, Korea, Italy, Guam and Bali.

5th Place: Dave Rillera (Partner Saki Waka), Daisuke Matsumoto & Shigekazu Fujimatsu ($300)
4th Place: Chris Nelson & AVP Pro Jeff Carlucci ($600)
Men's 3rd place winners: Shinya Inoue & Shoji Wakiya ($1200 cash)
Mens' 2nd Place Winners: Phil Dalhausser & Tyce Mister ($2500 cash)
Phil brought out his Olympic Gold Medal for everyone to see.
The 2009 Winners are Paul Baxter & Hugo Dooner ($4000 cash, return rountrip airfare, complimentary accommodation & meals at PIC, free entry for 2010).
The Men's MVP went to Shoji Wakiya for his phenomenal block in the 3rd place
game against Phil & Tyce. He says that they'll win next year!