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A large group of St Andrew’s College students departed for Summer Tournament Week, excited to be competing against their secondary school counterparts in various national and South Island events around the country, after the disappointing cancellation of most of these events last year due to COVID-19.
The students’ excitement translated into some outstanding results, with the Mixed tennis team, and Girls’ Junior futsal teams both ending the week as New Zealand champions, the Senior Girls’ futsal team finishing third nationally, the Mixed touch team finishing third in the South Island, the Senior Girls’ volleyball team winning the Division 3 national title, and the Senior Boys water polo team finishing second in the South Island.
It was a fantastic week of sport, with students doing St Andrew’s proud on the field, the court, and in the pool.
The St Andrew’s College Junior Girls’ futsal team had an outstanding two-day national tournament in Wellington, overcoming some tough teams to win the national title.
The girls won three pool matches and drew one against New Plymouth Girls’ High School, coming back from 2–4 down with just two minutes to go, to draw even just before full time. They then overcame Wellington East Girls’ College in another close encounter, before facing Diocesan School for Girls in the final. St Andrew’s managed to control the game and take an exciting win.
Megan Simpson (Y10) had a fantastic tournament. She won Golden Boot with 11 goals in six matches, and was voted Player of the Tournament.
The Senior Girls’ futsal team also had a strong competition, winning all three games on day one, before moving into playoffs the following day. They won the first game with ease, but lost against Wellington East Girls’ College, in the second game. Although the girls were disappointed by the loss, they were excited to finish the tournament in third place.
The Senior Boys finished second in pool play, and ended the tournament in 15th place. The Junior Boys faced a steep learning curve in their tournament, finishing 21st, and will grow a lot from the experience.
The Mixed tennis team faced extremely tough competition from the top schools in the country at the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Tennis Championships and played superbly throughout the tournament to win the national title.
The matches were hard-fought, with the final against Macleans College incredibly close. The match was all tied up after the singles, with the result having to be decided in the doubles. The boys were dominant, winning their match 6–0, 6–0, however, the girls faced tough, higher ranked opposition and went down in a hard-fought game 7–5, 6–3. A nail-biting countback on games was required to decide the winner, with the boys’ strong doubles results helping to secure the win for St Andrew’s, 50 games to 45.
This was the eighth time since 2007 that St Andrew’s College has won this national title – all under the expert guidance of coach, and Teacher in Charge of tennis, Hamish Faulls, and Jo Bigford-Fleming who has been manager for seven of the eight titles. These results make tennis the most successful sport in St Andrew’s history, with all of the College’s top players highly ranked nationally.
Both the Boys’ and Girls’ water polo teams competed at the South Island Secondary Schools’ Championships.
The Boys’ team got off to a great start, winning three of their first four matches. They carried their excellent form into later rounds and finished the competition in a highly creditable second place. Benjamin Steel (Y13) was named Most Valuable Goalie at the championships.
The girls had a tougher time in the early stages of their competition. While being competitive in all games, they weren’t always able to take the win. However, they played with great spirit and finished fourth.
Three teams from St Andrew’s College attended the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Volleyball Championships in Palmerston North.
The Girls’ Senior A team had an outstanding week, performing incredibly well throughout the competition to win Division 3, beating Garin College 3–0 in the final.
The Girls’ Senior B side worked tirelessly and never gave up. The girls had a great experience and learnt a lot, winning their last game to take out 11th place in Division 5.
The Boys’ Senior A team had an up and down week, and at times played some great volleyball against very strong competition in their pool, finishing 10th in Division 3.
The Senior Mixed and Boys’ touch teams competed at the South Island Secondary Schools’ Touch Championships, finishing third and ninth respectively. Both teams played with small squads due to injuries and other commitments, which made the weekend particularly challenging.
The Mixed team finished second in their pool. A tough first half cost them in the semi-final against eventual winners, Rolleston College, and they were unable to pull back a big half-time deficit. Despite playing with a severely depleted squad for all three games on the last day, the team dug deep in their final game and beat a very strong Lincoln High School team 8–6 to secure third place.
The Boys’ team had a tough pool but pushed Nelson College close in their final round robin game. In the 8th–9th playoff, they faced Nelson College once more, and were unlucky to go down 3–5 after being tied 3–3 at half-time.
Four St Andrew’s College 3×3 basketball teams competed in the national championships at the Bruce Pulman Arena in Auckland. They had a busy first day, participating in 12 games between them, as part of the 146-team event. There were some incredibly close games on day one against national powerhouses, Rosmini College and Westlake Girls’ High School, and a great win was recorded against Wellington champions, Queen Margaret College.
There was a mixed bag of results for day two, with the Junior Boys proving to be the most consistent, winning all three of their matches.
The final results after the playoff rounds were Senior Boys in 14th place, Senior Girls in 9th place, Junior Boys in 7th place, and Junior Girls in 5th place. The Senior Girls faced the eventual winners and second placed team in their pool and did incredibly well to beat one of them and lose by just one point in overtime to the other.
