Whangārei Girls' High School squash team secures national championship title

NZ's secondary school squash champions from top left: Ruby Collins, Shea Ferguson, Pippa Saunders, Jordyn Chapman, Olivia Rhodes, on floor from left: Amy Brown, Chelsea Traill. Photo / Supplied

Northland hasn't seen a national secondary school champion squash team for more than 20 years - until now.

The Whangārei Girls' High School (WGHS) squash team, which included Ruby Collins, Shea Ferguson, Pippa Saunders, Jordyn Chapman, Olivia Rhodes, Amy Brown and Chelsea Traill, won the national secondary school squash competition in Tauranga over the weekend.

It was the first national title for WGHS and the first for Northland since the 1990s when Kaitaia College won titles when former New Zealand squash player, Shelley Kitchen, attended the school.

WGHS Year 9 Traill, who was playing as the team's third-ranked player, was also selected in the national secondary schools junior team to play Australia later in August in Tauranga.

In this year's competition, about 60 boys and girls teams of five played best of five sets singles game. The team who won three games in the tie would advance to the next round and WGHS started their successful campaign on Friday with a 5-nil win over Papamoa College.

On Saturday morning, WGHS overcame Tauranga Girls' College 4-1 before beating Westlake Girls' High School 5-nil in the semifinals to advance to the final against Havelock North High School on Sunday.

WGHS went two games up against their Hawke's Bay foes with Traill and Brown winning the tie's two first games. Despite WGHS No 1 Ferguson losing a tough match, Year 13 Collins won her game in four sets to secure the national title and make team captain Saunders' game result irrelevant.

"I feel like it really hasn't sunk in," Saunders said.

"Everyone is like 'wow you're national champions' and it's pretty surreal but awesome for the hard work to pay off and I'm really proud of the girls."

Saunders, a Year 13 who had attended the competition for five straight years and captain for three, said it was satisfying to get the win after four years which featured two second-place finishes, a fifth and a sixth.

"It was pretty awesome because we came second in the first two years and it was really cool to see all the girls improve and it's great to finish off with a win."

WGHS were favourites going into the tournament with an even spread of B grade players which gave them the No 1 seeding.

Saunders said while she was confident in her team's ability, she was never sure of the win especially against Havelock North High School as the second seed.

"It was obviously very exciting and we knew we had a really good chance, but you still really never know because you have a lot of players who are under-graded and it was still really unpredictable," she said.

"It was even more nervous having that top seed because we knew that we were almost supposed to win but Havelock were pretty close to us, it was a close final."

Saunders praised the involvement of the team's younger players and was hopeful, if not a little wistful, for the future of WGHS at the tournament.

"It's really exciting for the next few years as well because there are two Year 11s and three Year 9s so they are all just going to get stronger.

"I'm very jealous because I love the tournament and I have a feeling they'll get close to it again."