Volleyball: Local team on top of league

Roebi Bidois

Volleyball Tauranga teams have started playing in the Northern League after competing in the season opening Midlands League.

The top four teams from the Midlands League have joined with the six top teams from Auckland to compete in the Northern League.

The top five teams in this league will gain automatic right of entry into the Premier 12-team national club competition which is again this year being played at the ASB Stadium in Tauranga in mid August. This is two weeks earlier than normal, due to the difficulty of booking the venue.

The Tauranga Women's A team won the Midlands League from Hamilton A, Hamilton B (who just beat Tauranga Women's B team) and Mauao.

Despite suffering injury, sickness and unavailability, the team won its first four games against Auckland opposition before running into national champions North Harbour Raiders on Saturday in Hamilton.

Although winning the first two sets, the team finally succumbed to the Raiders in five sets in a first class game of volleyball.

Despite being unable to close out the game the team took confidence in its performance after losing 3-0 to the Raiders in last year's national final.

The team then defeated an under strength Manukau South team 3-0 to assure a top five position in the league.

Despite the loss, the Tauranga team remains on top of the league thanks to Mauao's upset win over Harbour Raiders 3-2 in the last game of the day. This means that the top three teams at present are Tauranga, Hamilton and Mauao.

The Tauranga team is similar to last year with Roebi Bidois, Erin Kouwenhoven and Jade Stamp promoted from the B team and Anna Williamson returning to the club after her OE.

The Tauranga Women's Blue team, coached by Josh Fitzgibbons, is second in Division 2, still in with a chance of qualifying for the premier division at nationals. Tauranga White, coached by Tracy Braddock, is fourth in the same division.

The Tauranga men's team, coached by Tim Cleaver, which is going through a rebuilding phase is second in Division 2.