Back to school for Tauranga volleyball stars

Instincts honed playing for the multiple national championship-winning Otumoetai College side a decade ago and the New Zealand junior women's team almost gives Tauranga premier women's volleyball team an unfair advantage as they shoot for back-to-back national club crowns in Wellington in August.
Tauranga, who won at nationals in 2008 and again a year ago (they dipped out in the semis in 2009), will take a tight nucleus to Wellington, with four of the team - captain Taina Savage, Anna Williamson, Shannen Bagge and Leigh Tozer - the core of coach Stewart Henderson's Otumoetai College dynasty from their dream era when they dominated the national schoolgirl scene.
Bagge wasn't playing on Saturday, with Tauranga also without North Island rep players Holly Boyle and Amy Hunter, yet they still overwhelmed Hamilton 3-0 at the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, barely breaking a sweat as their Northern Region rivals were swatted aside 25-7, 25-15, 25-15, with the first set yielding a miserly four unforced errors from the vastly-experienced Tauranga side.
Savage, US-based Kiri Hirini and former Tauranga Girls' College powerhouse Lisa Claassen added the grunt up front while Tozer, playing at libero, passed superbly to stand-in setter Williamson.
Tauranga women's reserve team also continued their winning form with a three-set win over Hamilton 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-21), with both Beniece Douch and Stephanie Pierce hitting outstandingly well. Kim Tootell was steady through the middle and Irene Tauai passed well from libero.
Savage, now 26 and working as a funeral director at Legacy Funerals after four years in the US at college in Illinois (18 months) and Hawaii (three years), said it was uncanny how four of the side had gravitated back to Tauranga, having taken separate paths when they left Otumoetai College.
"It's almost like a complete circle, and having Stew there as well adds to it. It was like a reunion the first time we found ourselves back on court again, even though I'm now the oldest one here!
"Carly was at Tauranga Girls when we were at Otumoetai, and we all played for New Zealand, if not together then at similar times, so even though we were a bit rusty we had a sixth sense about where each other was going."
Savage still oozes on-court instinctiveness and a hammer-like right arm but her priorities have changed, from volleyball to work, although she's still highly competitive.
Henderson had more to do with Savage's pre-US development than anyone and said his star player's skill was still almost second-to-none of all the girls he'd coached.
"It's a bit poignant seeing them back playing together again. Taina has different priorities now but she possesses a hell of a lot of intelligence and determination, which has always been her hallmark.
"She's not always available to play because of work, which is great for the team having to do without her, but she puts pressure on the girls around her to perform when she is." Only Savage and Claassen were in the '08 title-winning side but Henderson has seven back from last year's team that didn't drop a set on their way to gold.
Savage isn't prone to making bold predictions but expects to be in the mix when the medals are decided, with Tauranga suffering just one loss in the Northern region competition this year to Sparta.
"Every year I predict top four, although last year was a complete dream run, and anything short of the semis again and we'll have completely sold ourselves out."
Hirini, 19, has just arrived back from her freshman year at Southern California's Long Beach University, training with the Tauranga side midweek for the first time in 12 months, although the 1.9m-tall hitter is heading back to the US in a few weeks and won't be available for the national tournament.
The former Bethlehem College student, who was just 16 when she won national gold in '08 with Tauranga, will transfer to Alabama when she gets back, partly so she can study nursing and also to escape an overbearing coach. "I want a school and volleyball experience and my coach wants my sole focus to be volleyball," she says. "Alabama's ranked 120th and Long Beach 30th, but that's out of 320 teams nationally so the level shouldn't be too different."