Volleyball: Taranaki schools junior regional rankings held

Phil Gayton

Six teams took part in this year's regional ranking series for teams entered to compete at North Island tournaments. The series was played over four days.

The Junior Boys' grade was won by Spotswood College with N.P.B.H.S as runners-up.

In a fairly evenly contested girls' grade the series was won by Inglewood HS, N.P.G.H.S were runners-up, Waitara HS were third with newcomers Sacred Heart Girls' College finishing fourth.

Huge entries for junior volleyball tournament

This week is Junior tournament week (Years 9 and 10 students) on the School Sport New Zealand 2024 calendar and large numbers of teams have entered the various indoor Volleyball tournaments around the country.

A total of 240 teams have entered in one of the three tournaments which means that well over 2,500 players and officials will be participating in this year's event. The main North Island Championship tournament will be held at the Bruce Pulman Arena in Takanini/Papakura with 107 teams involved, another 30 teams will compete in the North Island Satellite tournament in Porirua while 103 teams will play in the South Island event in Christchurch.

Taranaki will be represented by 6 teams 

Spotswood College Boys and NPBHS will compete at Papakura in the Top 32 pool to decide Division 1 and 2 championship grades. The first games will be played on Tuesday morning with a three game round-robin series to be played after which teams will be graded into two Divisions of 16.Championship play will start on Wednesday morning.

Spotswood Boys will play Hastings BHS, Te Puke HS and Manukau 4, NPBHS play Westlake BHS A, Tauranga Boys College A and Manukau 1.

The four Taranaki Girls' teams who have chosen to compete at the Satellite tournament in Porirua are Waitara HS, Inglewood HS, NPGHS and Sacred Heart Girls' College.

The 20 teams entered will play in two pools of 10 on the first three days with the play-off matches scheduled for Friday. Pool teams are:

Pool A: Mana College, Inglewood HS, Sacred Heart Lions (Wgtn), N.P.G.H.S, St.Catherine's College, Whitby Collegiate, Nannae College, Aotea College, Fielding HS and Wellington Girls College.

Pool B: Gisborne GHS, Onslow College, Wellington Girls College, Taita College, St. Mary's College, Waitara HS, Sacred Heart (NP), Newlands College, Queen Margaret College, Sacred Heart Clubs (Wgtn).