Waimea College fall short in volleyball national finals

Waimea College's senior boys A have fallen just short of national glory after a four-set loss to Rangitoto in the division 1 finals of the secondary school volleyball nationals.

It's the first time a South Island team has made a national final in eight years, the last being Waimea College's girl's team.

After a second place at the Mainland Senior Volleyball South Island Championships to Riccarton High School earlier in the month, a second place at nationals exceeded expectations for the young squad coached by Colin Redpath.

With six of the 10-man team in year 12, who will continue into their final year of school, the team has strong prospects of being able to keep their momentum into next season.

Colin says it's hard to break through the dominance of the North Shore and Bay of Plenty teams, who have dominated the boy's top division for years.

"It's a hard thing to get near and always a good battle."

He says with the depth of the tournament, they were already playing sudden-death qualification matches to make the top 16 and top eight.

"We were playing finals from the second day onwards.

"It's how the guys reacted, they hung in there and there were several key points where they turned it around."

With how close the games were, Colin says that while they had high expectations, they were just as likely to finish 20th as first with the competition format.

"The standard is pretty high.

"Against Hillcrest in the semis, we went down 2-0 and fought back from three match points in the fifth set to win 19-17."

After taking the first set of the final (25-20) with some strong hitting and blocking from the 6 '9 William Blight, the Nelson side lost three on the trot as they struggled against the well-organised Auckland squad.

Waimea couldn't find their momentum from the first set in the second, with the tide turning as they went down 25-15 despite a late resurgence.

The third set was a display in the highest of levels in schoolboy volleyball as the teams traded points, with Rangitoto taking early advantage as they edged out to a small lead.

Waimea was able to drag it back in with some massive mid-court blocks by Will, getting three in a row to bring the game to a tie at 21-all as the Nelson team unsuccessfully rallied (26-24).

The fourth set saw Waimea stretch out to an early lead, with outside hitter Nathan Davies having some standout winners before Rangitoto surged to even up the set at the midway point.

Nathan would go on to be selected in the tournament team alongside teammate and libero Sebastian Lams.

The pair, alongside Jobe Mcauley, has been playing top-level club volleyball for Pines, which has given them good experience, says Colin.

"They're playing club volley for pines as year 11s, playing against the best in the country. They're New Zealand-level players, all trailing for age-grade teams."

Colin has coached the Pines club to six national titles within the last decade.

Rangitoto would stretch their lead to five points, with Waimea fighting to the end to hold back the defending champions from back-to-back titles in a tough final set.

Colin wanted to thank the support from everyone watching online to the other local teams who came down to get behind them.

"What was really cool was the support from Tasman teams. It was really cool how all the schools got support. . . seeing Nelson College turn up in green and support us.

"With it being online, there was so much more attention. We were getting so much support from the school and the teachers, too."

Full results:

Boys: Waimea College A 2nd, Nelson College A 29th (2nd Div 2), Nayland College 32nd, Waimea College B 62nd (4th Div 4).

Girls: Nelson Girls College 10th, Nayland College A 17th (1st Div 2), Waimea College A 29th, Garin College 31st, Nayland College B 40th, Waimea College B 62nd.