Wanganui High School emulated their performance at last year's NZ Secondary Schools Tennis Finals with a fifth-place finish in the 2014 mixed grade competition in Hamilton on Wednesday.
Similar to last year, the unseeded WHS team had to face powerhouse schools St Andrews (Christchurch) and St Kentigens (Auckland) in theiropening fixtures.
They needed to win at least one of those ties to give themselves a chance at a top 3 finish at the Waikato Tennis Centre.
Beaten 4-2 and 5-1 respectively by those larger schools, who utilise fulltime coaches for their tennis programmes, WHS performed much better against the other teams of similar ability to themselves.
They crushed Christchurch's Burnside High 5-1 on Tuesday.
Teacher in charge Peter Reid said the feature game was the "heroic victory" by Michael Park and Kyle Butters in the boys doubles match, which they won 11-9 in the super tiebreak.
In the playoff for fifth on Wednesday, WHS beat Whatatane's Trident High 4-2.
"The highlight of this exciting encounter was an outstanding display by Rebekah Butters-Chamberlain, who won a marathon girls singles 5-7 6-3 6-0," said Reid.
Overall, boys captain and New Zealand junior champion Kyle Butters had another great tournament, winning all four of his singles games and two of his doubles games with Park and Sam Russell respectively.
Butters also won all his singles games at last year's tournament, so his absence will be keenly felt next year after he finishes high school.
Girls captain and sister Paris Butters won two of her four singles and two of her four doubles, while girls No2 Gabrielle Hiri won one of her two singles and also two out of four doubles.
"Fifth placing in New Zealand was a creditable performance by our local youngsters at the very highest level of secondary schools tennis," said Reid.
