Congratulations to our Premier Boys and Girls Tennis teams who retained their New Zealand titles at the National Secondary School Tennis competition at the Scarbro Tennis Centre this week. This was the third consecutive year for the boys and the fifth for the girls!

The boys’ team of Trent Smith, Edi Stoica, William Matheson, Andrew Qi and Liam Stocia won the boys’ title with dominant performances all week.  William Matheson came straight to join the team on Monday after returning from tournaments in Asia and played some great tennis all week.  The top four boys, William, Trent, Edi and Andrew were unbeaten in singles throughout and really set the platform for the team’s success. The boys didn’t drop a match or set in pool play and were then up against last year’s finalist, Auckland Grammar, in the semi final.  Our four boys’ singles players were just too strong for Grammar and they took the match with the two doubles playing out the tie.  

The final was against Scots College and once again the top four were just too strong in the singles and won the championship before the doubles had been played.

Having held the title for the last four years, it was always going to be a tough position for the girls’ team to defend again this year, with many new faces in the team and injury to No.2, CT Ampornachariya, keeping her out of play. 

The girls team of Kelly Drew, CT Ampornachariya, Shaylee Syme, Lana Popovich and Victoria Hockley cruised through pool play without dropping a match or set.  They were pushed in the semi against St Peter’s Cambridge but out-played the opposition.

The final against Westlake Girls – a  repeat final of the last three years - went on for just over 6 hours with both teams playing their hearts out to win! At the end of the singles, it was 2-all with Westlake winning the top 2 singles and Saint Kentigern winning the bottom 2 singles.  Our team had to win both doubles and started strongly, taking the first sets in each game.  When the 2^nd pair of Lana and Victoria won their game in two sets, it was then up to Kelly and Shaylee to win for the girls to retain the title.  This game went to the 3^rd set tie breaker and although the Westlake Girls weren’t going to let our girls win easily, in the end, to the relief of everyone, we won 10-8. This was a remarkable fifth consecutive National title for the girls.

The Mixed team was also competing in the NZ championships in Hamilton.  The team of Sarah Wardenburg, Connor Williamson, Charlotte Booth, Tama Payne, Alysha Nowacki and Trenton Leleni made it through to the semi-finals but unfortunately lost to St Peter’s Cambridge but held off Hutt Valley High School in the play off to claim 3^rd place to round up a very successful week for the tennis programme.

Our congratulations to all the players involved along with their coaches, managers and supportive parents. A fantastic effort!

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