Nayland College seems set for another successful year on the volleyball courts, with two Nayland teams achieving high placings at the Senior Beach School Nationals held at Mount Maunganui during the first weekend of February.

The first team was made up of sisters Brooklyn and Chloe Crichton, while the second team featured Hannah Young and Ana Piukala. Both teams had an outstanding tournament, making the quarter finals in Division 2, which featured sixty-six teams. Overall, Hannah and Ana came 7th in their division, while the Crichton girls went through to the semi-finals, finishing 4th in their division.

Brooklyn said she was surprised by her team’s high placing as they had only recently started playing beach volleyball competitively. “We had never been to the beach nationals before, we had only played during the Wednesday night social grade for fun. So I was quite surprised, I didn’t think we’d do as well as we did,” Brooklyn said.

Brooklyn said she found the tournament experience a good social event as well. “It was really fun. Just being outside, seeing different people from different schools that I know, meeting everyone, and watching the other teams play (was great),” she said.

With the beach volleyball season now over, all four girls will now get back into training for indoor volleyball, which despite her success over summer, is still Brooklyn’s favourite out of the two. “I enjoy Indoor more because it is a bigger team, so there are more people you get to play with,” she said.