After a very successful season to date, winning both the Canterbury and South Island Championships, our Senior Girls A Volleyball team travelled to Palmerston North to compete in the 53rd New Zealand Secondary Schools Volleyball tournament.

After the 2022 event was cancelled due to Covid-19, the 2023 event - one of the biggest schools events in the country - saw more than 160 teams, fielding 1600 athletes participate across two venues at Central Energy Trust Arena and Massey University Teaching Gym.

The team had high hopes of producing some good performances and were aiming to navigate their way from a girls division hosting 88 teams through to make the national top 8 and contest a quarter final. After picking up 3 wins from our first three games, against Lincoln, Hamilton Girls and Western Heights and not dropping a set, the team progressed into the last 16 draw and were allocated a new pool of 4 teams. First impressions were that this was a tough pool to be drawn into as only two teams would advance and securing two wins to progress to the quarter finals was going to be difficult. Bethlehem College from Tauranga were the top seeds for the whole tournament and were our first game. We had a monstrous battle and after having chances to close out the game we went onto lose a tight match 3 sets to 2. Havelock North was a fairly straight forward victory and provided us with our first win in the post section. It was now desperation time. A win against highly regarded Orewa College from North Harbour was essential to us progressing through into the top eight. Orewa had already shown their quality by beating Bethlehem earlier in the day. It took us 4 sets to beat Orewa and for us to play our best Volleyball of the year to defeat this quality Orewa outfit (Orewa were to go on and finish 2nd). But we had achieved our season long goal of making the final 8.

Could we better our season goal of top 8 and move into the semi finals? Our quarter final was actually fairly straight forward. We were able to contain Otumoetai College efficiently and closed that game out 3-0. So, off to the Semi Finals. Our opponents…….Rangitoto College from the North Shore. Rangitoto were on another level to the other teams we had played. In fact, it was a level that we couldn't match. Despite winning the first set 25-20, we couldn't counter their increase in intensity and service pressure and they slowly ground us down. The end result a 3-1 loss and us now requiring a win against St Andrews College to win the bronze medal.

After stumbling in the first set against STAC, the team found a new level of energy and finished the job. A 3-1 win, earning the team a National Secondary Schools bronze medal and rounding off a fabulous team effort. Rangitoto went on to defeat Orewa (whom we beat) 3-0 to take out the championship

Individual Accolades were to follow with Angela Reupena and Lily Spark being selected into the Tournament team. This recognition is only given to the 10 best High School Volleyball players in the country!! Well done Lily and Ange!! We farewell Ange and Annabelle, our year 13 players and Isi, our Chilean superstar. Ange and Annabelle have given so much to the programme over 5 years and will be missed greatly. The challenge now goes out to the next generation of players to fill their shoes and add to the legacy of Christchurch Girls' High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora Volleyball.  

Thank you to all of our friends, family, teachers and peers who showed their support by cheering us on from afar, your support truly meant the world to us. This tournament and experience could not have been possible without the efforts of Volleyball New Zealand staff and volunteers. We owe a huge thank you to everyone involved! 

We can’t wait for what next season holds.