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!

Monday, March 9, 2009

The biggest Marianas Cup ever!

The 17th Annual Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival was an ultimate success. Not only did was PIC's main beach volleyball court jam-packed with enthusiastic spectators on Friday night, the FINALS drew another large crowd. And, the teams did NOT disappoint! The fans witnessed some incredibly thrilling games, with forceful spikes, amazing digs and eye-popping blocks!
Congratulations to ALL 104 participants of the 2009 Marianas Cup who helped make the event so spectacular! And of course, a big thank you goes to PIC Saipan for their generosity - over $50,000 in complimentary rooms & meals for pros, media and return winners in addition to the use of the venue, labor and supplies.

Pro Paul Baxter for his second consecutive title wins with former PIC Guam Clubmate,
Hugo Dooner, from California!

Paul & Hugo beat Phil Dalhausser & Tyce Mister in the Finals: 21-15.



Earlier in the day, Phil & Tyce played Shinya Inoue & Shoji Wakiya for third place. Shoji (in black shorts) "wowed" the crowd when he successfully blocked Phil and won the point. How many amateurs can say that? Shoj will likely include that on his resume.
Return winners Chie Iwana & Yoko Miki defended their 2008 Title to win the Women's Tournament. They received return airfare, compliments of Northwest Airlines, free hotel stay and meals by PIC Saipan and free entry by NMIVA. What a deal!

Federica Tonon and Daniela Gatteli moved up from the Loser's bracket to play Chie Iwana and Yoko Miki in the FINALS: 17-21. It was an exact re-match of the 2008 games.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Marianas Cup - Sunday!!

Phil Dalhausser and partner, Tyce Mister, remain undefeated in the 17th Annual Marianas Cup.
Not only are there thrilling games ongoing at PIC, there's also the Horseshoes tournament.
If you're on Saipan, come on down to PIC now to see the top games - quarter finals, semi finals and FINALS!

The $16,000 purse is up for grabs with $4000 for 1st place men's and $3800 for 1st place women's. 2nd place men's and women's is $2500 and $2000, respectively.

Great form, 6'9" Gold Olympian, Phil Dalhausser on the jump serve!

Phil said that Russ & Jon are the best sports casters!
Daisuke on the jump serve

Chris & Jeff Carlucci (AVP Pro) against Randy & Kevin

Team T&A (Lindsey & Gin) and Shinako (Jpn pro), Aurora

Some great games right on the PIC Beach!

Another amazing jump serve

Shimpei (JPN Pro) and Russ in their first game of the day

Jenn (AVP Pro) with partner, Nicole

Mili & Korean Pro, Mi Hwa Shin

Tony Thompson on the block (former PIC Clubmate)

Phil signed many autographs throughtout the weekend! Thanks, Phil!

Marianas Cup - Saturday matches

104 international beach volleyball enthusiasts entered the tournament on Saturday morning with participants from Japan, Korea, US, Guam, Italy, Bali and Saipan.

The tournament was made possible by all the generous sponsors:
Platinum:
PIC Saipan, Pacific Trading (Miller Lite, Pepsi, Gatorade, Monster), Aon Insurance, IT&E, Marianas Eye Institute, Marianas Medical Center, Marianas Trekking/ KSPN2, Marianas Visitors Authority, Traders Insurance, Northwest Airlines.

Gold:
Delta Management, Shell Marianas, Law Offices of Stephen J. Nutting, Triple J Wholesale/Hertz

Bronze:
Aqua Resort Club, Asiana Airlines, Burger & Comer, Chong's Corporation, Elite Printing, Glooay Mai Thai Spa, Gregg Elliott Artwork, Hana Tour, Hyatt Regency Saipan, Island Apparel, Ladera Int'l School, Mariana Resort & Spa, Microl Corp., Mode Tour, No Ka Oi, Pacific Eagle, Paradise Island Chiropractic, PDI, PIC Guam, Rainbow Color, RNC Tours, Saipan Grand Hotel, SandCastle Saipan, Seafix, Star Sands Plaza (La Moda Isla), Stars & Stripes, Tinian Dynasty, Topnotch, WDI (Tony Roma's & Capriccosa's)

The 2009 Marianas Cup participants

Russ & Tyce watching one of the games

Kanae, Russ & Jon
The 2009 Tournament Organizer & Tournament Directors

Fans posing with Jenelle Koester

PIC Saipan's own Tiger & Tommy in the game
Phil and Tyce were undefeated on Saturday

Hugo & Paul vs. Mike and Dave
Team Italia: Daniela & Federica

Jenelle & Heather

Team USA Undefeated in Pro Exhibition

Friday night at PIC was home to the start of the 17th Annual Marianas Cup Beach Volleyball Festival with the highly anticipated Pro Exhibition. Team US defended their title and won all the matches against Japan and Korea.

Team USA: Phil Dalhausser & Paul Baxter, Jenn Snyder & Jenelle Koester
Team Japan: Shimpei Asao & Yasuo Nakaya, Shinako Tanaka, Hiromi Suzuki
Team Korea: Kyung Su Shin & Su Min Jin, Ji Youn Jung & Mi Hwa Shin


Jenelle Koester & Jenn Snyder defeated Team Japan and Team Korea in Friday night's Exhibition Match. Jenelle and Jenn love the Marianas Cup and this year marks their 2nd trip to the beautiful island of Saipan. In the pro raffle, Heather and Nicole won the chance to play with the American pros.