GADSDEN, CAJIGAN REPEAT AS TENNIS CHAMPS

By Robert Balajadia

TENNIS SINGLES

Guam High Panthers’ Chloe Gadsden sends a backhand to her opponent Emma Haurillon in the girls finals. (GSPN photo)

Guam High Panthers senior star MVP and defending champion Chloe Gadsden capped off a memorable high school tennis career by defeating St. Thomas’ Emma Haurillon 8-3 in the All-Island Tournament finals Thursday at the Rick Ninete Tennis Court in Agana after rain had previously postponed all tournament action.

“This could help me since I can send my results to college coaches and hopefully they can decide whether or not I’m a good fit for them. I think I got better through the years and so did my opponents. I hope I leave the sport with more people fighting for the top spot since most of us seniors are gone,” said girls champion Chloe Gadsden.

Gadsden will now set her sights on playing college tennis and feels that her years of success on Guam may grant her the opportunity she has been waiting for.

The evening kicked off with all four first place matches taking up all four courts, including an exciting showdown between All-Island defending champion Islander Cris Cajigan and Tom Park in the boys singles. Park had defeated Brian Tuncap Jr. in the semifinals after Tuncap defeated boys single MVP in St. John’s Knights Derek Okuhama.

Cajigan took a match lead early and closed out Park 8-4, getting the match point on a serve-ace. Cajigan is only a senior, but he is aspires to play Division 1 tennis down the road and he is already building a great resume.

“It felt great to get tennis going again,” said Cajigan on being able to play after many rain-outs.”It’s nice to win, but I felt I could’ve done way better. [Tom] is not a person who could just give away points so I had to earn everything. He’s a really tough competitor,” he admitted.

TENNIS DOUBLES

FD Friars tag-team of Leo Wook Lee and Jonathan Toves defeated Sanchez’ Clark Pacay and Gian Paras 8-4 to claim the boys doubles top spot.

Two Harvest pairs met in the girls finals as Jiyoo Lee and Jarrica Meno went down to the wire between Kimberly Johnson and Sophia Takasu in a close 8-7 match.

OFFICIAL STANDINGS

Girls B Doubles

PHOTO GALLERY:

The awards for the 2014 IIAAG Tennis Season.

Islanders’ Cris Cajigan preparing to slice an oncoming ball back to opponent Kngiht’s Tom Park. (GSPN photo)

Knight’s Tom Park trying to pull off a comeback against defending champ Cris Cajigan. (GSPN photo)

Knights Tom Park gets a water break in-between matches. (GSPN photo)