Both Varsity Boys and Girls enjoy successful tournament in Christchurch, 23-25 March.

There is a major difference between a team standing on a court, compared to six individuals. This all comes down to four key concepts: communication, trust, positivity and support.

The South Island Secondary School Satellite Indoor Volleyball Champs were held in Christchurch last week, with two teams representing Roncalli College in the three day tournament. Both the girls and boys varsity volleyball teams competed, with both teams walking away with fifth place wins in their division.

For the girls Varsity team, Satellite taught us the importance of positivity, communication and teamwork. We fought hard in each game, and very quickly learnt that we were going to have to trust our teammates in order to succeed. We started off day one of the tournament on a high, taking a win over St. Hildas, 3-2 sets. Then closing out our second game of the day in three sets against Burnside (3 sets to zero). As a result, the Roncalli Varsity girls sat second in their pool at the end of day one. Day two meant facing the remaining teams in our pool, RNLS B (who at that stage were ranked first) and Rolleston Black. Our game against RNLS (Rangiora New Life School) taught us that sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do from a win. Unfortunately, we walked away from that game with our first (and only) loss, 3 sets to zero, but the lessons we learned from the game were more important than the score. Communication, timing and positivity will make or break a team. Although we hadn’t managed to completely learn from our mistakes, we came away with a 3-1 set win over Rolleston Black in the second game of the day. That left us in third place at the end of day two. Day three of the Satellite tournament (the day of the playoffs) began with a good 3-0 set win over Dunstan Blue, and it was during this game that you could tell just how far out team had come since day one. As a result of our win against Dustan blue, we would be playing for 5th and 6th in our division, against Burnside. Having played Burnside back on day one, we already knew that this game was not going to be an easy win, and if we wanted to walk away with a 5th place title then we were going to have to fight for it. An intense game, filled with skill and some luck followed, with us managing to push the game out to five sets after a rather rocky start. The girls varsity took the win over Burnside with 3-2 set win, meaning we placed 5th in Division 2 at the South Island Satellite Tournament.

The girls varsity team included the following players: Eve Benson, Venice Fajardo, Emillea Tate, Dorothy Wilson, Pippa Nevin, Isla McManus, Anya O’Connor, Lucy Hinde, Celeste Gleeson, and Bethany Oudemans.

During the Satellite Tournament in Christchurch, the Roncalli boys Varsity team placed 5th in division 1. We took 3 wins and 3 losses overall . Our first day started off rather rough as we were all looking pretty nervous, but as our first game started against Rolleston I think we definitely got a lot more comfortable and getting into the pace, this led us taking the game 3-1 sets. Then our last game of the day which was the second game of the day, we started really strong the team was looking great but we ended up losing the 0-3 sets against burnside boys, this probably our best game we played by far. As a result of day one, the varsity boys sat 3rd in our pool ( there were 2 pools). Day two started off really well as the boys took the first game against TKKM winning 3-2 sets. Second game going in we were rather laid back which we lost the game 2-3 sets against shearly boys, Our last game on the second day was really tiring as we had already played 2 games back to back which we then lost quite sadly 0-3 sets against bayfield boys. That left our team still third in our pool. The last day of our tournament, day 3 the day of our playoffs, currently our team had to play for 5th and 6th according to our results, so our last game against kaikoura boys we took the game 3-2 sets this meant that we took 5th in division at the south island tournament.

The boys varsity team included the following players: Thomas Felix, TK Waqaliti, Michael Kotobalavu, Shem Gutierez, Tyson John, Johred Tao-ey, Luka Tyler-De Har, Lachlan McCambridge, Lim Gutierez.

On behalf of all of the players from the girls and boys Varsity teams, we would like to say a huge thank you to our coaches, Mrs Hackler and Mr Hines, and our managers Jill and David Hinde for all of their help and support prior to and during the tournament. As well as our sponsor, McCain's who provided us with amazing pizzas for the trip.

On the whole, Satellite provided us with many opportunities to learn and to grow as players. Considering many of us hadn’t played together prior to this tournament, the relationship we built within our teams over those three days is one that even teams who have played together for a while don’t have. The support on and off the court made all the difference and regardless of the result of our final games, we were walking away as winning teams.

Emillea Tate and Thomas Felix (Varsity Girls and Boys Captains)