An update from the teams' managers.  

Boys Volleyball 

The junior team started the year by making the final of the Year 10 Monday competition. 

A committed group of these boys then played over the winter in the club competition and made valuable gains in their understanding of the game and positioning skills. 

The team competed in the pinnacle junior event in Term 4, the Canterbury Junior Champs. 

They successfully won their first round section games with the last game being a close call against Aranui High School 2-1. 

The semi-final was against Middleton Grange and once we got on top of them, our superior skill level and game structure made the difference, enabling us to win comfortably, 2-0.

The final was against Aranui again, and finals volleyball is all about controlling anxiety. We didn’t cope with this in the first set and Aranui easily took this set. We bounced back from this to win the second as the boys relaxed and showed more belief in their abilities. The 3rd set was tight at the turn around 13-12, and we edged out from there to gain a lead and keep it, winning the last set comfortably. 

The team:

Enda Brennan

Luke Brennan

Daniel Bruerton

Orion Chau

Andrew Liu

Raymond Lu

Campbell Madsen

Boniface Mao

Jacob Miles

Four boys were selected in the Canterbury Tournament team; Andrew Liu, Raymond Lu, Orion Chau and the Most Valued Player of the tournament was Campbell Madsen.

Girls Volleyball

Canterbury Junior Championships 4-6 November.

We had 3 teams entered in this competition. Junior A boys and Girls largely year 10 students and a year 9 girls team.

A Team

Eileen Dixon

Kelsi Brown

Melanie Bryant

Thea Mataiti

Emily McAuley-Scott

Meg Rennie

Laura Gray

Katie McIntyre

Chelsea Gray

Erin Wood

Year 9 Team

Cassidy Berry

Tan Kernkhunthot

Lily Anderson

Rose Tobia

Victoria Bee

Mia Faalilo

Georgia Bateman

Hayley Whiu

Charlotte Tuffery

Nisha Bk

Jayda Kingi

Briar Syme

Jessica Smith

This was the first tournament for the Year 9 students so a real learning curve. They finished 8th in Division 2, making good progress in developing their understanding of the game.

The Junior A girls went into the tournament unbeaten on Monday night this term. They won their section finishing with a close 2-0 match after surviving a tight first set where they had to pull back after Girls High applied early service pressure. 

In the semi they played St Andrews who played steadily returning much of the attack and the sets were tight until the mid teens when our girls pulled ahead. 

The final was against St Margaret's College who had been playing in two teams during the Monday night competition, so they had not really had the opportunity of playing them at full strength. 

It was a nail bitter match with the first set going point for point until both teams reached the 20s and then Riccarton pushed on to win. 

Second set went to 27-25 there were numerous match points before our girls finally managed to take the match and the Canterbury Champions for the 4th time in a row. 

Their success is due to the regular training and preparation they have done over the whole year where they have trained for two hours Thursday night and two hours Sunday night. They are really fortunate to have a vastly experienced coach Roger Bleyendaal (Past coach NZ women’s Volleyball team) who arranges his life around these training sessions.

Laura Gray, Kelsi Brown and Eileen Dixon were selected in the tournament team with Eileen being the Most Valued Player of the tournament for the girls.