WINTER TOURNA The pinnacle of the winter season for many codes took place in early September during the annual Winter Tournament Week. The week is set aside for winter codes to run their national or regional tournaments – an opportunity for the best school teams from across New Zealand to come together and compete.
a determined Opotiki College and managed to hang on for a 32-28 win to put them through to the final against Bay of Islands College. A lot of nerves in the final saw a game with several unforced errors – the girls did their best but unfortunately went down 33-22. With the team making the final and finishing in second place, they qualify for B grade next year. Well done girls!
This year Dio had a number of teams competing around the country across a range of sporting codes. Thank you to the coaches, managers, staff and volunteers who supported our teams throughout the week, and congratulations to all our athletes who took part and represented the School.
1ST XI FOOTBALL The 1st XI football team was offered a place in the Lotto Premier Tournament that was held in Taupo. With another relatively young tournament team, the girls had an outstanding week only losing one game throughout the whole tournament. Unfortunately tough pool competition meant that one result was enough for them to miss out on the top half of the draw, but the team played some amazing football throughout to end up winning the Trevor Osten Memorial Trophy for 17th place against New Plymouth Girls’ (5-0), which is their highest ranking at the NZSS tournament in over eight years – an awesome achievement!
PREMIER BASKETBALL For the third year, Diocesan competed at the NZ Basketball Northern Cup held at North Harbour. The girls arrived in strong spirits ready for a big three days of basketball. The team played extremely well throughout pool play, which saw them progress into the semi-final. They unfortunately had a tough game in the semi-final, losing in overtime, but they went on to win the bronze medal for third place in the playoff against Rutherford. A great finish to the tournament for the team!
1ST XI HOCKEY The 1st XI hockey team finished fourth in the Federation Cup, held in Auckland. Coming up against eventual champions St Cuthbert’s College in the semi-finals made for a tough match where the girls held on at 0-0 until the last five minutes before unfortunately losing the game. They had a tough play-off for third and fourth against St Margaret’s College, which saw a 1-1 full-time score head to a shoot-out where the girls again narrowly lost. An outstanding week for the group and a remarkable fourth place finish is something of which to be very proud.
UNDERWATER HOCKEY The underwater hockey senior and junior teams competed at the New Zealand Secondary School Championships held in Wellington. The competition was extremely challenging this year, and both teams were relatively young and new to competing at this level. All our girls played their hearts out and battled through a number of injuries. The improvement throughout the course of the year and the tournament was outstanding and both teams finished in fifth place. Well done to our girls!
PREMIER NETBALL The premier netball team competed in the UNISS tournament, held at North Harbour. The team went through pool play unbeaten against some tough opposition, which set them up for a semi-final. The girls fought well against 68
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2ND XI HOCKEY The 2nd XI hockey team travelled down to Stratford, competing at the Chris Arthur Cup, a tournament solely for 2nd XIs. The young team had a great week with some outstanding performances, finishing seventh overall after just missing out on the semi-finals, losing in another shoot-out.
