Teams take part in volleyball champs
Katikati College JuniorAand Bvolleyball teams took part in theVNZ2020 North Island Junior Secondary Schools Volleyball Championships held over four days in Tauranga from November23-26.
This is a huge competition with 53 girls teams and 43 boys teams competing, the competition took over Tauranga’s Trustpower Arena, QE Youth Centre and theMountSports Centre at times.
The JuniorAgirls werebumped upto the 1st/2nd division after a disappointing Baywide qualifying tournament, meeting top seeds OrewaCollege and Carmel College on Day1. They finished third in their pool on the first day and after a great second day with 2 out of 3wins, found themselves in division 2, top 8, a very good start. The team had amixture of results with someexcellent games andsome very tough matches. Coaches Dakota Eade and Sydnee Shanley have done a great job with this team.
SetterMegHarraywas in outstanding form all weeksettingup her big hitter MeghannFraser, and combining well withAnaTuivai, Nina Briggs and Leilani Rooks to score points. Middle’s Ella-Rose Sutton and
Eden Pointon got better everygame and defended very well, with Sutton also having a fine stint as setter. Their final match wasfor 5th and 6th in division 2 and they wentdown narrowly in 3 against Tauranga Girls B.
The mostly Year 9 JuniorBteam whoarenewto volleyball havecome a longwayin a short time with head coach Simon Quin. All of the girls play other sports and are pickingupthe gamequickly, learning the skills and the technical aspects of volleyball rotation. With theirmore experienced players of Shea Addison andEmmaleeTubby leading the way, they had a greatweekand though they didn’t get any wins, they all improved massively and can look forward to progressing next year and aiming for the top division as Year10s.
The indoor volleyball champs were followed by the NIJSS Beach
Volleyballchamps on the Main MountBeach on Friday. Four pairs attended this day, with best results coming from the Nina Briggs/ MeghannFraser pairingwhowon their pool tomakeit to the playoffs, but lost to PapamoaA. MegHarray/ Jenna Pooley and Shea Addison/ EmmaleeTubbyboth did well as did the Year 9 pairing of Rose Swain/ Destinee Benge.
NIJUNIORBADMINTON CHAMPS
Taurian McConnochie, Hamish
Tanner, LucasMokaandQuentin Pearson took part in this inaugural event whichwas held inQE2 Memorial Hall, Tauranga. Thissaw the boys compete as a team where they played a double andsinglegame each. With only Taurian being a recognised player and the other boys with only a handful of practises this year, the event wasabout the enjoyment of the gameand a learning curve.
The boys started out shaking and