Photo Credit - Masanori Udagawa / Photowellington.com

Story courtesy of College Sport Media

St Mary’s College are the College Sport Wellington RSSL Division 1 netball champions for the ninth straight year.

Not since 2015 has another school’s name been engraved on the silverware - but this was the closest final in this period to this happening.

St Mary’s beat Tawa College 37-35 in an extra time thriller in the final on Monday night at the Akau Tangi Sports Centre.

It was jubilation for St Mary’s and heartbreak for Tawa at the end, as St Mary’s broke a 35-35 deadlock at the end of regulation time by scoring the next two goals to retain the title.

Only moments before extra time, Tawa had come within a whisker of winning the final 35-34 when their shooter Malia Leone scored what they thought was the match and title winner in the dying seconds. But the goal was disallowed and, just like their 36-36 draw when they met just a week prior, the two schools were all square after 40 minutes.

The final saw three distinct momentum shifts to reach that point. The defending champions settled into the final much faster than Tawa and quickly pulled away to a 10-5 lead, which became 12-9 by the end of the first quarter.

Tawa rallied in the second quarter, coming back on to the court with renewed focus and determination, particularly on defence where they harried St Mary’s into mistakes and unforced errors. The result was Tawa winning that 10-minute period 13-4 and going into halftime 22-16 up.

Tawa was dominant throughout the third quarter as their connections and long-range counterattacking passing game found its range, with co-captains, centre Bailee Meroiti, goal attack Breanne Wilson and wing attack Jaime Hokianga all finding their rhythm. Tawa led 31-23 at the end of the third quarter and seemingly had one hand on the trophy.

The third decisive momentum shift came in the final 10-minute stanza when St Mary’s turned on a blistering fourth quarter saw them out-score Tawa 11-3 and come back to draw level at 34-34 with a minute to play. Both sides added one further goal before Tawa’s last-gasp chance to win on the fulltime buzzer.

It wasn’t to be as St Mary’s held their nerve in extra time when it mattered most.

St Mary’s captain and centre Te Arani Vulu said the team was both elated and relieved to win the final and the title:

“That was probably one of the hardest finals I have been involved in, so it felt really good to come back from being down in the third quarter and the last quarter and to go into extra time to win. We are happy we can carry on that legacy that past St Mary’s players have left for us.”

How did St Mary’s turn it around in the fourth quarter?

“We didn’t change our tactics, it was just all about re-setting for us,” said Te Arani. “In our team huddle our coach [Pelesa Semi] just told us to believe in ourselves and to make sure we stay connected and every game she always reminds that it is not over until the final whistle and we kept playing hard.”

The win for St Mary’s was all the sweeter given that two of their leading players weren’t on court. Liana Saipani was sidelined injured while their best player Phoenix Schwalger was not allowed to play due to recovery standdown from the recent New Zealand U21 tour to Fiji, which she was part of. Both were on the bench supporting the playing group.

Te Arani said that the team now turns its attention to defending the Lower North Island title over Winter Tournament Week. A top five finish at LNISS in the Hawke’s Bay will see them qualify for NZSS Nationals in October.

Elsewhere, Queen Margaret College beat last year’s beaten finalists Sacred Heart College 43-37 in the playoff for third and fourth, St Oran’s defeated Wellington Girls’ College 31-25 in the fifth v sixth match and Wellington East Girls’ College beat Marsden 29-26 to finish seventh.

Earlier in the night, Scots College were convincing 43-24 winners over Kapiti College to win the Division 2 title and Aotea College beat Whitby Collegiate 33-25 to win the Division 3 final.

The St Mary’s College team that won the 2024 RSSL Division 1 Netball title was: GS London Sciascia-Taufao; GA Armani Fruean; WA Pippa Cairns; C Te Arani Vulu; WD Teuila Bennis; GD Fo’i Lemana; GK Nevaeh Latu-Griffith. Substitutes: Alofa Beganovich; India Perez; Kitana Bates; Leti Auva’a. Unavailable: Phoenix Schwalger (NZ U21 standdown); Liana Saipani (injured). Head Coach: Pelesa Semu. Assistant Coach: Monalisa Groom. Manager: Gail Saipani. Assistant Manager: Alysse Saipani

St Mary’s College Road to the 2024 Title: Beat WEGC 31-25; Beat Marsden 40-16; Beat Sacred Heart 40-22; Beat St Oran’s 40-19; Beat QMC 30-26; Beat Wellington Girls’ 39-16; Drew with Tawa College 36-36; Beat Tawa College 37-35 (final).

Article added: Tuesday 27 August 2024