John McGlashan has won its way through to the national schools finals in Wellington, in a fortnight, after qualifying in second place in the South Island finals in Timaru at the weekend.
McGlashan beat second seed St Andrew's College 5-1 in an upset result to take a major step to success.
The winning team was top-seeded Christ's College, which downed both McGlashan and St Andrew's 4-2.
McGlashan was even with Christ's at 2-2 after the singles but, being behind on the countback, gambled on splitting its doubles strength with the need to win both.
However, the Dunedin school went down in hard-fought encounters.
In other contests, McGlashan beat Wakatipu High School, Timaru Boys' High and Marlborough Boys' High, all by a score of 5-1.
When McGlashan beat Marlborough in the last round-robin fixture, it eagerly awaited the final result of the match between the two Christchurch schools.
A 4-2 win by St Andrew's would have left three schools tied at the top and McGlashan would have been South Island champion on the countback of results among the three.
The singles were shared 2-2, but, led by top national junior Connor Heap, Christ's was able to hold on to take both doubles in third-set tiebreaks and top the table alone.
McGlashan was well led by Carlos Reid, who was beaten only by Heap and Mitchell Sizemore, who was unbeaten at No 2. Reid battled in the last round with a heavily-strapped ankle, a.
The team was completed by Peter Hartono (14) and his brother ,Thomas (12), who are both highly ranked nationally in their age-group and fought valiantly against many larger and stronger opponents.
In the girls section, Otago qualifier Columba College was fifth of the six teams. In the mixed-sex section, South Otago High School came sixth.
