Beach volleyballers set for title defence

PAPUA New Guinea began a confident defence of their men’s beach volleyball gold medal on Monday, defeating Northern Mariana Islands in straight sets on the first day of action at the 2019 Samoa Pacific Games.
On the new courts at Apia Waterfront, PNG won the first set 21-17 and the second 21-7, playing with a new line-up of Richard Batari and Loi Walo, in place of Port Moresby 2015 Pacific Games gold medalists Richard Kilarupa and Moha Mea.
Day one of competition saw six games played in the men’s competition in front of a capacity crowd at the free event.
Samoa beat Tahiti in a close-fought match, finishing strongly to take the win.
Cheered on by packed crowds, Samoa won the first set 25-23, Tahiti took the second 21-12, and Samoan claimed the last set 15-11.
Samoa’s Eneliko Tuli said: “Thank you Heavenly Father that they got the win.
This is not the last game for us but the whole purpose and aim is to get a medal for Samoa.”
Cook Islands took to the sand against Palau. Palau took the first set in a consistent show of strength, winning 21-13. Cook Islands came back strongly in the second set to win 21-14. But the third set was closely contested and went point for point with Palau coming out on top, 17-15. Guam was outclassed by Tonga in straight sets (21-16, 21-6).
– gamesnewsservice