Volleyball season has been hit hard by the Covid pandemic so far this year with many upsets, including the cancellation of the National tournament.

Last Thursday, the Senior A Volleyball team packed up the school van and headed to Christchurch. Due to Covid, we had to stop every hour and take a break from wearing masks and also ventilate the van. Our first stop was Oamaru. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it was great to get out and have some fresh air. Will (our coach) put us in two teams and we started our challenge for the weekend. It was a long trip through to Christchurch with stops at Timaru and Ashburton and we were happy to finally arrive at our destination.

The Mainlands tournament offers Senior Secondary school teams from across the South Island the opportunity to compete against similarly skilled sides, providing valuable court time and game experience. This year, under the Red Covid Protection Framework, it was run slightly differently: fewer teams were able to enter, each team had to self-duty and no spectators were allowed. The tournament was run under strict conditions. Teams were put into bubbles: Division one girls, Division one boys, Division two girls and Division two boys. We were in Division one girls which meant we played in the afternoons at Pioneer Stadium.

On Friday morning, we continued our team challenge and played a round of mini-golf. Early afternoon, we headed to the stadium ready to play our first game against Christchurch Girls' High School. It was a great game and even though we lost 3-0 we were really happy with how our team played. Later that afternoon we played Nayland College.

Saturday afternoon saw us play Riccarton High School and St Andrew's College. Although we lost both games, our team played really well and adapted to our changing team environment. We finished the competition in a very respectable 9th place.

Unfortunately, Covid played its part at the tournament, not only affecting us but other teams as well. We lost two of our players during the course of the weekend and, by the time we arrived home on Sunday, more players had tested positive.

The team would like to say a special thank you to Keira Hollamby who travelled with us as our referee and then transitioned into a player.

We are all very grateful that we had the chance to travel to Christchurch and play against non-Otago teams. We are now looking forward to Otago Champs and the replacement National competition.