Our Senior A Netball team recently competed at SISS in Nelson. The Tournament hosted 80 teams from throughout the South Island.

'A' Grade at SISS is a fiercely contested competition incorporating 32 of the best teams from throughout the South Island.  It is the pinnacle event for most team's season.  This year we had an experienced group of players who had high hopes for the tournament after a pleasing Club competition and winning Otago Secondary Schools.  Unfortunately we were without Olivia Fowler who broke her arm just days before the Tournament. 

Our first round of pool play led us to compete indoors at Saxton Stadium against St Kevin's College, South Otago High School and Geraldine High School.  These games were won convincingly with us posting over 50 goals in each and winning by considerable margins.  We knew our cross-over pool was going to be tough and it did not disappoint.  First we faced Otago Girls and posted a slow but in the end convincing, win.

Day three presented many challenges.  The tournament was moved outdoors and the weather changed from beautiful bluebird days to grey skies and heavy rainfall.  The next challenge was St Andrews College.  Unfortunately we took too long to adapt to the conditions and suffered a defeat.  Next we faced Christchurch Girls High School in the afternoon match.  We fought hard throughout the game and went into the final quarter just two goals down but unfortunately, we were unable to gain the win despite some very tempting incentives from Mrs Duthie.  This loss put us out of the Top 8 which was very disappointing to us as a group.

After some soul searching and team bonding we re-grouped to find the team culture that we know and love, and worked hard to make the best out of a less than ideal situation.  We knew that we were more than capable of gaining 9th place, the best placing now possible and ensured we did all we could together as a team, to gain it.  Our first challenge was against Central Southland College.  They were a nuggety team who fought hard and pushed us from start to finish but a good team effort saw us come away with a win.  Our final opposition was again against St Kevin's College.  We started well and pushed on to win the game and gain 9th place overall for the Tournament.

We are all very pleased and excited for Meg Sycamore who was named in the Talented Players selections.  Very well deserved!  Kristin Dore also had an outstanding tournament, anchoring our shooting end.

We would like to thank our Year 13 players Meg Sycamore, Madi Williams, Kristin Dore, Abby Anderson, Emma Dermody and Isabelle Geytenbeek for their commitment and energy they have given our team across their years of service.  We look forward to our Year 12's leading a new group of players in 2020.

We would like to thank Kaye Sycamore for her role as Team Manager.  She always goes above and beyond to ensure that everyone in our team is ready to go.

Thank you to everyone for their support and kind messages throughout the week.  We really did appreciate the encouragement we gained from our Columba community.