Small team, big heart: Agape wins v-ball title

Despite being one of the smaller schools and teams in the 2025-2026 PSS-NMIVA Interscholastic Boys Middle School Volleyball League, Agape Christian School showed that size doesn’t matter as they found their way back on top with the title after going the distance with Saipan International School on Saturday, Mar. 14, at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.

With just over 50 students in the whole school, ACS outlasted all schools and won their second title of the season after their first title in the elementary school division just last month.

The Torchbearers had a one set advantage in the finals and needed just two more sets to clinch the championship. They took the second, 21-18, but the Geckos showed why they belonged there as they bounced back and took the third, 21-16, thanks to the hard-hitting Kanoa Owens and less mistakes by the team overall.

A back-and-forth battle ensued on the court as both teams put out all the stops, with ACS trying to clinch it with the fourth, but the Geckos, led by hard Owens, Rayphand, and Quido Jambor who held it down to win by a close margin and thriller, 22-20.

The final and deciding fifth set had both teams rattled, but costly mistakes got the better of the Geckos while the Torchbearers regained their composure. Timely blocks by Scott Li and well placed dinks by Jireh Fu put it away, 15-7, for their second boys middle school volleyball title. They won it for the first time in the 2024-2024 season against Francisco M. Sablan Middle School.

With Li and Fu were Andy Chen, Ratul Bhuya, Benjamin Cai, Job Gong, Brian Li, and Daniel Li.

The SIS team with Owens, Rayphand, and Jambor were Wilson Guo, Matt Zhu, Johnny Zhang, Jake Duenas, Carver Gross, Gabriel Walsh, Timothy Watson, and Jiaheng Zhang.

ACS president and senior administrator Kok H. Pang said that the development of their student-athletes and sports programs have come a long way since their school was founded in 2007. “In the first few years, we were slaughtered by other schools. We even lost volleyball games 0-25, but we changed little by little, and got helped by our gym being built—we got an advantage,” he said.

In the finals against SIS, he said that he saw that SIS really wanted to win. “Our boys were a bit nervous. Sport is not only physical skill, but also mental. I think SIS really wanted it. They really gave us a good challenge so thought back. It could go either way in the last set to 15, but by the end, we made less mistakes. SIS really gave us a good fight, they could’ve won it also, it’s just that we were a bit more steady in the end.”

Pang added that he loves seeing a lot of young people play volleyball, not only in school, but even in open gyms. “That’s very good for students, young people to play sports and to avoid doing things that are not so good. This will give the CNMI healthy people and community. People who play sports are happy people so I hope more people play sports, whether it’s basketball, golf, volleyball, badminton.”

He then thanked the PSS Athletic Programs staff and the NMI Volleyball Association.