Columba College and St Hilda’s Collegiate are locked in for their playoffs at the national secondary school netball championships in Christchurch today.
Columba will face Epsom Girls’ in the playoff for ninth and 10th place at 10.10am, while St Hilda’s play Scots College in the playoff for 13th and 14th at 9am.
Both Dunedin schools finished on a high after yesterday’s results.
Columba had a massive 44-26 win over Mt Albert Grammar, a school usually known for producing some of New Zealand’s top talent such as Silver Ferns Maria Folau and Maia Wilson. They then followed up with a tighter contest against Scots, where Columba produced a 36-34 victory.
St Hilda’s had a narrow 32-28 loss to St Andrew’s College first up. St Hilda’s held strong throughout the game, but a 9-4 third quarter in favour of St Andrew’s ultimately gave the Christchurch school the edge. But St Hilda’s bounced back by thumping Wellington Girls’ 37-21 to round out the third day.
Avondale will be gunning for back-to-back titles when they face Howick College in the final this afternoon.
Avondale have been one of the benchmarks of the tournament, led by shooter Priscilla Rasmussen and coached by her mother, Rachel.
They also represented Auckland at the national under-18 championships in Dunedin earlier this year, where Auckland won in overtime.
Avondale won their first national title since 2002 when they won last year. Howick last won the national title in 2017.
