On Sunday 3rd April the Senior A Girls' Volleyball team packed their bags and headed off to Palmerston North for the 2016 NZ Secondary Schools Volleyball Championship.

We were among the 1800 students and 173 teams competing in the event, hence the very large venue at which we played.

Our week started with settling into our Motel and then attending the Opening Ceremony where the tournament was opened with the ‘first serve’. The days were very full on with having two games and a duty on most days with our latest game at 10 o’clock at night. We weren’t complaining though as others were still going past midnight!

Throughout the tournament we faced many great challenges including daily supermarket trips, shopping at the Plaza, listening to Rebecca’s take on Kris Kross, the social and of course many Maccas stops. In the time when we weren’t playing volleyball, we were watching more volleyball (got to watch the best players in New Zealand in action), thinking about volleyball and dreaming about volleyball. We had a great tournament winning all games but one, at which everyone played their best volleyball of the season.

Finally the day came where we had to leave and face the reality of student life, although we were sure Mr Quin was very relieved to see his family after a week of only female company of 13:1.

We would like to say a very big special thank you to our coach Mr Quin who has given up a huge chunk of his time to coach us and grow volleyball in our school. He has persevered admirably and never once told us to hush whilst singing delightful tunes in the van.

Overall it was an awesome week with the added bonus of finishing the tournament first in 6th division, all our hard work payed off and we finally were able to bring home a medal.

Bring on the next season!

- Senior A Girls Volleyball Team