Five teams gained an early upper hand when completing Tuesday鈥檚 opening day with back-to-back wins at the NZ Secondary Schools Netball Champs being hosted by the Auckland Netball Centre.
Three Auckland teams, defending champions Mount Albert Grammar School, Saint Kentigern College and newcomers St Mary鈥檚 (Auckland) were joined by St Mary鈥檚 College Wellington and Dunedin鈥檚 Columba College to post unblemished records after two rounds of pool play.
One of the most popular events on the domestic calendar, the tournament features the top 16 secondary schools in 91色情片, who qualified following the respective Upper North Island, Lower North Island and South Island Secondary School events. First established in 1993, the national secondary schools鈥� event is an important 91色情片 pathway for players, coaches, management teams and match officials.
With the Upper North Island featuring six teams and five apiece from the Lower North Island and South Island respectively, there鈥檚 also plenty of combined tactical nous on the coaching front with several former Silver Ferns adding their imprint. That includes new teams to this year鈥檚 event in the form of St Mary鈥檚 (Auckland) coached by former Silver Ferns defender Bernice Mene, and Ashburton College, with former international shooter Angela Mitchell guiding the southerners.
In a rare occurrence, all five teams representing the Lower North Island come from Wellington.
With the 16 teams split into four pools, the main focus on Tuesday and tomorrow morning鈥檚 play is chasing a top-two spot in the respective pools and with it a place in the top eight to remain in contention for the title.
Mt Albert Grammar and Saint Kentigern share top billing in Pool A after posting comfortable wins over both Queen Maragret College and Ashburton College.
In Pool B, St Mary鈥檚 Wellington showed a clean pair of heels with handy 27-17 and 50-37 wins over Westlake Girls鈥� High School and St Andrews College, respectively. With one win apiece, Westlake and Wellington Girls鈥� College remain in the race to push for a top eight spot.
It is a similar story in Pools C and D. With former Silver Fern shooter Jodi Brown in the coach鈥檚 seat, Columba College completed two impressive wins when accounting for Trident High School 30-19 followed up with a strong 48-33 outing against Wellington East Girls鈥� College to top Pool C.
St Mary鈥檚 College (Auckland) fended off a strong challenge before prevailing 38-32 over the Julie Seymour-coached St Margaret鈥檚 College before backing up with a well-merited 41-32 win over Hamilton Girls鈥� High School to remain unbeaten in Pool D.
With matches played over four 10-minute quarters, the final round of pool matches will be played on Wednesday morning followed by cross-over matches in the afternoon and on Thursday to determine the make-up of Friday鈥檚 final place play-offs.
The final of the NZ Secondary Schools Champs will be played at 1.40pm on Friday.
Live streaming and the draw can be accessed by visiting