Sports News Term 2, Week 6

Sport was a massive part of our recent House Day and it saw the SMC girls having the opportunity to try some new sports in a fun and friendly way.  On offer were Table Tennis, Volleyball, Netball, Fitness pursuit, and Pickleball.  A great time was had by all, with some hidden talent getting the chance to shine.  It was great to see some new faces having a go at different sports and having a great time doing it.

As we are now midway through the term, with gradings now done, our teams have a few weeks of competition ahead before the winter holiday break.  Hopefully, not too many wet days like Wednesday, forcing cancellations for our outdoor sports. 

If you are keen to watch some great sport, there is always something on with at least one sport playing every day of the week.  

Badminton
Badminton at SMC in 2025 has hit the floor running.  It is super exciting to have so many girls actively participating and enjoying the sport of badminton.

With the trials at the end of term one, our badminton season has started with great enthusiasm. We are proud to have 11 teams entered in the weekly competition, showcasing our girls'  talent and dedication.  This enthusiasm is also evident at our Tuesday trainings, with our girls working hard to improve their skills.

Recently, our Senior A team competed in the Canterbury Secondary Schools tournament and were placed 3rd.  It was a great weekend of badminton. The girls are now preparing for the South Island Secondary Schools competition to compete on the 14th & 15th  of June in Dunedin. This competition will provide our girls with the opportunity to test their skills against some of the best players from other schools in the South Island. Go well team.

A huge thank you to our staff supervisors Mrs Jack, Mrs Coakley, Mrs Godfrey-Chatterton, Miss Stocks, Ms Gray, Mrs Baker-Sherman, Mrs Fogarty, Rev Steph and Ms Hardy for supporting us all each week.  Special thanks to Alicia in the Sport Office for her fabulous support organising our draws and transport each week - we all really appreciate everyone’s time

Go SMC Badminton!

Ms Hardy & Shan

Basketball
The senior A team is going from strength to strength this season, and last week's game against CGHS was no different. After a slow start, leaving the girls well behind, they picked up the intensity and clawed it back, getting within two points of the higher-ranked CGHS team.  With an outstanding performance from Lucie Davis, Y12 going to the hoop and drawing the foul over and over, Lucie made the most of shooting free throws. Alys Hatton, Y11, had a brilliant game and took control of the ball on offence and on defence forced plenty of turnovers.  Annabelle Johns, Y10, continued to move well off the ball and created space for herself and her teammates, opening up the offensive end.  With no basketball on King's Birthday Tuesday, the team now faces an away game before a bye and another away game.  This will see out the rest of the term for home games, but we are looking forward to some more games at SMC in term 3. Thanks to all those who have come down and supported the team when they have played at home, it makes a big difference having home game support.

On Tuesday, our Junior A girls had a one-off home game and it was a ripper!  The girls started strongly with great ball pressure from Bailey Kleindyk, Y10, and Coco Hocking, Y1,0 with Portia O’Malley, Y10, capitalizing at the hoop.  Grace Millar was a strong rebounder, pulling down boards and getting amongst the action.  Villa was a tough challenge all the way through the game, but the SMC girls held on to the lead for most of the game and finished by taking the win 46-41.   This is only the Junior A team's second game for the season after a deferral and a bye, but they looked like they had been playing together for much longer, displaying strong teamwork.  Way to go team!

Our social teams had no basketball last Friday, but are back into it again this week with five home games at SMC this Friday from 4pm.

Congratulations to Old Girl, Evie Leeson (OG 2024), who at King's Birthday weekend represented Canterbury Basketball in the U20 Basketball Nationals held in Tauranga.  Evie made a massive contribution to her team, helping them finish 3rd and pick up the bronze medal.  Way to go Evie!  While Evie is back home in NZ over her USA summer break, we are lucky enough to have her involved with SMC basketball.  The Junior and Senior A teams will benefit from Evie’s expertise and experience during practices, while our Friday night social teams get to see Evie looking after the gym here at SMC.  

Cross Country/Road Race
It was a warm and sunny Tuesday for the ISSA Zones Cross Country, with 22 girls from Years 5–8 proudly representing SMC as they competed for a place in the Canterbury Primary Schools Race.

The course, known for its challenging hills and undulating terrain, tested the endurance of all runners. There were plenty of red faces at the finish line—a true reflection of the girls’ determination and effort.

Team SMC showed fantastic spirit throughout the day, not only in their racing but also in the way they cheered each other on. It was wonderful to see the sidelines lined with supportive parents and grandparents, creating a great atmosphere for our runners.

Top 10 Finishes:

Year 5: Rosa Smallman – 2nd, Tina Wang – 8th
Year 6: Isla Foley – 4th, Rachel Wallace – 7th, Isla Hughes – 8th
Year 7: Charlotte Robertson – 3rd, Amelia O'Connell – 10th
Year 8: Lyla O'Sullivan – 2nd, Sophia Foley – 5th, Sylvie Roberts – 7th

Congratulations to all the girls who gave it their all and represented SMC with pride!

Football
What an awesome start to the season for the SMC Red Socks! We've kicked off incredibly strong with three wins from three matches. Every player is demonstrating fantastic teamwork, skill, and determination on the field, and we're proud of this strong start. With the two wins in grading, it has meant that the SMC 1st have taken a spot in the Div 1 competition. What a great start to a very promising season. 

Report from Lucy Young

Hockey 
Hockey at SMC is putting on a strong show again this year, with six senior teams and six teams in the Junior School.  Our 1st XI girls have had an amazing start to the season and are currently unbeaten, in the Secondary School Premier Grade (SSP) played on a Friday night at Nga Puna Wai.

Korfball
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of travelling to Taiwan as part of the U19 Mixx NZ Representative team to compete in the 40th National Association Cup Korfball Championship in High School Division A. This was an amazing opportunity and such an awesome experience. 

Starting the journey in November 2024 with a two-day trial, followed by training camps once a month and training once a week, we worked on learning and perfecting skills, tricks and set plays. 

Finally, Saturday the 15th of March 2025, had arrived, meeting at the airport, the team was fizzing ready to check in and board, filled with anticipation for the trip. First, a twelve-hour flight to Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour flight to Taipei.

Taiwan has consistently ranked among the best in world korfball in recent years. Currently sitting second in the world rankings, we knew we were in for a challenge. We started the competition with a friendly game against the Hong Kong U21 team (who were also invited to play) and started off the competition strong, winning our first game. Playing in the pool games, we won a couple and lost a couple, ending up in a three-way sudden-death penalty shootout to get through to the championship games. 

Through to the quarter finals, we met Hong Kong again, a tough game where we came out on top. In the semi-finals, we came up against the reigning champions of the competition. This was intimidating. The coach is the U21 National Coach; he has years of experience bringing teams to nationals and ending up on the podium most times. Even though we lost this game, it was our best one of the competition. We played to have fun and were all super supportive; it kept the score closer than we thought it would be. 3rd-4th playoffs, we finally understood it was possible we could come home with a trophy. It was a daunting game, this one seemed to matter the most, it really showed the korfball community that New Zealand is competitive and we have the skills to match it at this international level. This game was one we were proud of. The opposition, though playing slightly rough, didn't scare us, and we fought to the end and brought home the third-place trophy.

In addition to playing in the High School national competition, we also entered into the Open Grade competition. This was more intimidating. We met the woman who is the best korfball player in Taiwan and considered the best female korfball player in the world. We also played against many senior korfball stars; the most intimidating part was playing and defending against the current Taiwan captain. This was a challenging experience.

Overall, it was such a massive experience to play sport at this level when I hadn’t really played at this level before. It wasn't something I had expected when I started playing back in 2021. I know I made year 9 Emma proud, and I hope that this helps inspire other girls to give other sports a go. I made the decision to give it a try just for one term, and I am so glad I did; otherwise, I wouldn’t have got this far or to this level.

Emma Hoskins

Netball
Congratulations to Sophie Ockwell, Y11, and our very own Leanne Chambers for taking out the title at the South Island U16 representative tournament over the weekend as part of the Canterbury Red team.  Sophie was playing while Leanne was assistant coach. Our SMC girls had a fantastic weekend with Jasmine Ginnever, Y11, and Alex Campbell, Y11, finishing 3rd with their Canterbury Black team and Milla Cox also representing Canterbury in the White team.  

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are busy times for our SMC netball girls, with games being played on all these days for different grades. Our Senior A team competes in both the Supernet Competition and Saturday Club competition.  Wednesday is Supernet day, and with SMC always hosting at 4:30pm it is a great chance to come and watch the superstars of SMC netball shine at home.  This year, our Senior A team is performing exceptionally well again and continues to have excellent results in both competitions.  

Jellybean Junior Tournament
Last Sunday on a beautiful sunny day down at the Hagley Netball courts, St Margaret's College had eight netball teams competing in the Jellybean tournament. These teams were years 5-8 and had a fabulous time dressing up and playing netball in the sunshine. 

Thank you to all the coaches, umpires, and parent managers that made this day possible, a special congratulations to the Bananas in Pyjamas for winning the year 7 best-dressed competition.

Rugby
This year, the SMC Rugby team started a little differently with the opportunity to play in a mini tournament against Craighead, Columba, and St Hilda's. Our team joined with Rangi to play 15 aside games in Ashburton and Timaru with an overnight stay. While the scores may have gone against our team, the positive way we played and the outstanding performances by our girls were exceptional. With a lot of new players this season, it was very good to see them develop and gain time on the paddock. The game against Columba College was a titanic struggle with our combined team playing the best rugby possible, where they defended well and attacked with determination across the team. Outstanding performances over the three games, Ellie Scotland and Emily Dennis in the forwards, and Lily Beaven in the backs, showed their experience, while Amelia Knight and Alice Dale showed good improvement in their first games of senior rugby.

Now onto our regular Wednesday School Sport Canterbury competition, it starts with a 10 aside competition and we have had 2 games so far, a good game against Marian College where we won convincingly with good tries to Pippa Bocock and Bella O'Connor. A couple of new players joined the ranks as well and performed very well as they came to grips with a new sport and team. Our second game was against a similar strength St Andrews team which we had a great battle with. Outstanding performances by Harriet Thorpe, scoring 2 tries and Jessica Brown-Shi scoring her first ever try. The team was directed well by captain Ellie Scotland and Savena Fagalima, playing out of position but adapting well to the challenges. This competition is building for the 15 aside competition and also the Buller 10s in August. 

Tramping/Walking
This Sunday, the walking/tramping club are tackling the highest peak on Banks Peninsula and climbing Mt Herbert.  After being rained off a couple of weekends ago, the group will be hoping for some nice weather to make the most of the stunning view.  We look forward to hearing all about it and hopefully seeing some beautiful photos in the next newsletter.  Thanks to Miss Mackie for all her work in organising this, and as always, if you are interested in joining this group, please let Miss Mackie know.

Volleyball
King's Birthday weekend saw a number of our Senior A volleyball players representing Canterbury in the NZ IPC in Wellington.  Julia Mitchell, Delilah Brown, Hannah Millar and Lucie Davis, all Y12, were representing Canterbury in the U19 team. After going unbeaten in pool play, they continued their form into the finals, where they had a reverse sweep (coming from 0-2 down to win 3-2) over Bay of Plenty.  Named to the tournament team were Julia Mitchell and Delilah Brown, with Julia Mitchell being named MVP for the tournament.  This is another remarkable achievement by our volleyball girls. We are all so very proud of all you are achieving.

Triathlon
Elza Harrington, Y9 and Gemma Sitjes, Y13, have been winning again, but this time it is in recognition of their outstanding achievements this season at the recent Canterbury Triathlon Club awards.  Gemma took out the prize for U20 girls while Elza won in the Junior 13 age group.   Well done, girls.