NZ Secondary Schools Netball Championships - Day Three

NZ Secondary Schools Netball Championships - Day Three Review

Defending Champions Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS) from Auckland will contest the New Zealand Secondary Schools Netball Championship final on Friday against St Mary’s College from Wellington.

Both sides have remained unbeaten throughout the Championship after six matches and it’s the first time St Mary’s have made it to the final on their seventh attempt, finishing the tournament in seventh, 12 months ago.

Wellington East Girls’ High School and Baradene College will compete for the bronze medal directly before Friday’s final, while John Paul College and Pukekohe High School will play-off for 5th and 6th.

Summarising the bottom half of the draw in Pool G, Tu Toa were too good for Waimea 46-27, while New Plymouth Girls’ High School defeated Southland Girls’ High School 33-26 and in the later round, Tu Toa beat New Plymouth Girls’ High School 43-22 and Southland finished their post-pool play with a 43-33 over Waimea.

And in Pool H, St Margaret’s defeated Christchurch Girls’ High School 42-32 while South Otago High School continued their late run of form beating Palmerston North Girls’ High School 45-31. In the afternoon’s Pool H matches, South Otago were too good for Christchurch Girls’ High School 40-31 while St Margaret’s College and Palmerston North Girls’ High School could barely be separated after 40 minutes with St Margaret’s edging out to a one goal win 35-34.

In the upper half of the draw, John Paul College from Rotorua have been the surprise team of the tournament in their very first showing at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Tournament. In their first match on Thursday they defeated Westlake Girls’ High School 36-17 and made a play to qualify for the place in the 3rd/4th play-off spot in their late match against Baradene, which they narrowly lost 39-32.

Also in their pool E, Westlake were disappointed with their loss to John Paul College and then a heavy defeat to MAGS 43-19 later in the day. Westlake will play Auckland Girls’ Grammar School tomorrow in the play-off for 7th and 8th.

In Pool F, the only match on Thursday to go into extra-time was the clash between Auckland Girls’ Grammar School and Wellington East Girls’ College. Locked at 38-all at fulltime, the match extended for two periods of five minutes, with Wellington East Girls’ pulling ahead to win 49-42 in front of a vocal Auckland crowd. St Mary’s College defeated Pukekohe 41-25 and then in the most anticipated match of the day to decide the Tournament finalist to play MAGS, it was St Mary’s College who defeated Wellington East Girls’ College 39-34 to secure their spot and a shot at becoming NZSS Champions for 2013.

Please click here for Friday's draw and full results. All matches feature LIVE scoring, available through the Netball New Zealand website. The final match, as well as the match for 3rd/4th placing will be videoed and uploaded to the Netball New Zealand You Tube channel Friday evening.

- ends -

© Scoop Media