Hayley Tallentire. Photo supplied.Ashburton College’s netballers have finished with a win to finish 15th at the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Netball Championships in Nelson.

They took on Samuel Marsden College in the play-off for 15th yesterday morning and won it 33-30, to ensure they finished the tournament on a high.

It was a tough tournament for the young College side, failing to pick up a win until the final day, although they came close on more than one occasion and gave some much larger schools a real run for their money.

The tournament got under way on Tuesday and after losing all of their pool games, the Ashburton girls found themselves in the lower half of the draw.

On Thursday morning they took on St Mary’s College, a team that finished fourth at the lower North Island tournament, as Ashburton College did at the South Island tournament.

Down by one at half time, Ashburton College – led by Samantha Holden – applied a lot off defensive pressure, creating multiple turnovers which were converted by Hayley Tallentire at the shooting end.

The girls were determined to maintain that pressure, but St Mary’s came back and turned the score around to be leading 29-27 at three quarter time.

A couple off crucial turnovers in the final quarter saw the game slip away from the Ashburton side, eventually going down 36-40.

Tallentire continued her fantastic tournament, shooting 32 out of her side’s 36 goals.

After a short turnaround the Ashburton girls were back out on the court, this time against Napier Girls’ High School, and the Napier side came out off the blocks firing and before the Ashburton girls knew it they were down 13-30 at half-time.

It was a game of two halves, with Ashburton clawing their way back into it, only losing the third quarter 10-11 to be down 23-41.

All Ashburton players made it on court and the side’s two youngest players, Year 10s Ella Pearson and Billie Surridge, both put in great performances, as AshColl won the last quarter 10-7 for a final score of 33-44.

Without a win, they went into the 15th place play-off, which they won.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 11 October 2019