Squash players battle it out at NZSS champs
The St Paul's girl’s team was ranked 20th and came up first against the 13th-ranked New Plymouth Girls' High School. The team went down 4/1 with Kaya Yokahama causing a big upset to win her match.
This took the girls into a round-robin, where they lost to Orewa 4/1 (with another win to Kaya) and Sacred Heart 4/1 (Jaby Lau winning her match), followed with a superb 4/1 win against Kings College and finished one place above seeding.
The boy's A team were the 19th seed. A loss against Matamata 4/1 (James McLanachan with the win) in the first round, was followed by the A team playing the 30th seeded St Paul's B team in the second round. A valiant effort from the B team saw them go down 5/0.
A 3/2 win in round 3 (Jack Collins, Lachlan Cowley and James McLanachan with wins) was followed by a tough 3/2 loss (with Lachie and James again winning their matches) to Francis Douglas. A 3/2 win (with wins to Jack, Lachie and a fifth straight win for James McLanachan) against New Plymouth Boys' High School in their last game, had the A team retaining their 19th seeding.
After their loss to the A team, the B team had a 3/2 loss (Toby Carr and Gabe Pinvanichkul getting wins) against Kings College, before two 3/2 wins over Tokoroa High School (James O’Callaghan, Toby and Gabe getting wins) and Howick College (Phelix Van der Nest, James, Toby and Gabe getting wins).
This meant the B team finished 29th out of 34 teams to improve their seeding by two places.