Indoor V Ball Returns, Beach V Ball Duo Seeks Another Podium Finish

The NMI Men's and Women's National Volleyball Team have been getting some high-flying and hard hitting action in at the Marianas High School Gymnasium as they are fired up to stage a comeback after a long hiatus in regional competition and put the Marianas back on the map at the 2025 Palau Pacific Mini Games, set for June 29-July 9. Meanwhile, the NMI Men's National Beach Volleyball duo have flown in from Hawaii and California to represent once again with redemption in mind.

The youthful indoor volleyball teams are up against stiff competition as they prepare to compete off-island for the first time. With no local volleyball leagues—only seasonal and interscholastic tournaments—the players have gained most of their experience through these limited opportunities.

Despite their youth and lack of consistent playing opportunities, both teams are determined to put the NMI back on the map at the Games. They started their practices in March for just twice a week, but after the boys high school season, they've been training daily.

On how the teams were put together and how difficult it was, women's head coach Nak Nakashima said, “To be honest, it was really hard. I had to use the last Christmas tournament for Agape to see individual players, also in high school and open gym to see their skill level. One thing I'm really focused on is their ability and coachability.”

As for his expectations with the competition, he said, “I've watched videos of the previous Pacific Mini Games but honestly I don't wanna base it off that because with the new age rules that changed, I don't want them to go in expecting that they'll be the same players. I want them to go in and just focus on why they're there—to put NMI back on the map for indoor volleyball.”

For Karisse Ong, an athlete from Tinian, she said playing volleyball with the team now opened her mind to how diverse people play. “When you're in a small island, you've only known how your teammates and your community play, but since moving to Saipan, I've seen how passionate other people are for the sport, so it inspired me to play harder and not quit playing this sport.” With that, she said their team chemistry is pretty spot on now. “We're definitely going to keep this momentum when we go up.”

On representing the NMI team as someone who was raised on Tinian, the Northern Marianas College student said, “It feels really good to represent my home especially since there wasn't a women's team for indoor volleyball for many years, and I'm the only Tinian representative.” She added, “Not only do I get to represent my island, but I also get to represent my family, which is also very important to me.”

Over on the men's team, head coach Ryan Camacho said that the boys are really hyped up and are excited to show their skills off in Palau and play competitively. As it's been a while the NMI has competed off island, he said, “A lot of them have the skills, it's just trying to gel together. The oldest one is older than me and he's experienced, as well as the other one who we just had fly in from college. And the rest are all guys that competed in the high school level—these guys are actually pretty incredible so honestly just gelling the team together and just looking to see what they can do.”

William Sosa, a 2025 graduate of Saipan International School, for his part, said, “We're feeling pretty good. We've practiced a lot and our coach really pushed us.” With the chemistry, he said, “At first, the chemistry was kind of off, but we've gotten a lot better, and our team bonding has really helped.”

The women's volleyball team is composed of Azriel Fatialofa, Beatrice Fabre, Ella Hall, Erica Zandueta, Ha'ani Passi, Jasmine John, Karisse Ong, Katriel Saures, Leilighschigh Rasiang, and Zoe Lee, and they are coached by Nak Nakashima. The men's team includes Casey Chambers, Dylan Mister, Jasper Hall, Jermaine Salas, John Nekaifes, John Justo, Omari Joab, Rondelle Apostol, Simon Tang, William Sosa, Yi Sui, and is coached by Ryan Camacho. The team manager is Shawn Davis.

Beach volleyball

Over on the sand, 2022 Mini Games silver medalists and 2023 Pacific Games bronze medalists duo of Andrew Johnson and Logan Mister are back to represent and stage another strong run and finish for the NMI.

The team is coached and managed by Logan's dad Tyce. Since they last represented the NMI in the 2023 Pacific Games, both Logan and Andrew have been playing in big tournaments in Hawaii, California, and Florida, and both have their Triple-A rating—which is the highest skill level in beach volleyball.

Tyce was asked how the boys had been with their training and he said, “They've been very fortunate to do a lot of training in Hawaii and California and playing in tournaments. They've been able to play sometimes against each other, and last weekend they played with each other, in which they won first place out of 30 teams.”

When asked what the goal was, he said, “They're hungry for the gold medal. They're gonna do it. They've been working hard on and off the court, in the gym, working on their explosiveness, and their skill development.” The top competitions, Tyce said, are Australia as they have up-and-coming talent, and from Fiji, Vanuatu, and Tuvalu.

For Johnson, he said, “I'm feeling pretty good. We've got about four days to adjust to the climate so far, and we've got another four days coming up. That's been my biggest challenge so far is adjusting to the heat and humidity, but it's been going really good, so I'm really excited.”

Their training since they got back on June 19, Logan said was, “we've just been doing drills with our coach, kind of working on getting used to the climate because the weather is pretty hot—just getting general touches but it's difficult because we don't have anyone to scrimmage against, but we're just trying to get as many reps as we can in preparation.”

On how confident they feel heading into this Games after a silver finish in the last Mini Games, Johnson said, “I'm feeling pretty good. In the Mini Games, we lost to Vanuatu, but we got to play them again in the Pacific Games and we ended up beating them. We had a bad bracket because we had to play Australia in the semifinals, so that was a bit tough for us—but I feel like we've both gotten better since those games. Australia is sending a team to Palau, but we're really, really ready for redemption against them.”

The team is flying out on June 29.