North Island volleyballers visit Christchurch

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 39

North Island volleyballers visit Christchurch

Leading South Island volleyball clubs will get a chance to evaluate their games against North Island opponents at the annual Queen’s Birthday tournament at Pioneer Stadium this weekend.

Fourteen North Island teams are heading south for the tournament while 17 are travelling from Dunedin, boosting the total entry to 50 teams.

In the men’s A grade, the defending national champion, Pioneer, is favoured to take the title from last year’s national runner-up, Shirley A. Other sides likely to test the top two seeds include Victoria University, which finished second at the tournament last year, Northcote

(Auckland), Vikings (Dunedin) and perhaps the central league sides, Rongotai, Wellington Eagles and Porirua. The women’s A grade competition should be closely fought between Pioneer A, Aranui-Smash, Shirley and the Auckland side, Akarana, which is basically the old Sparta women’s side which finished second at last year’s national championships 'behind Pioneer. The Canterbury under 19 men’s and women’s championships will be held on Sunday evening and Monday morning, featuring Canterbury A and B, Nelson and a

club selection. The New Zealand under 19 women’s squad is due to be

named shortly after the event. Meanwhile, the Pioneer and Shirley men’s teams will head to Sydney for a club .tournament from June 18-24 and the Pioneer coach, Tony Barnett, expects hard competition for the two Christchurch sides. “This is the third year running that we have gone to Australia. Such trips provide motivation and will help us in the build-up to our national championships.” Pioneer has won the New Zealand title two years running and Barnett said three

successive titles would be a rare feat. "No team has won three successive titles in the

last decade and we are keen to change that.” The Shirley coach, Terry Lomax, is also looking forward to the Sydney tournament, which features leading club sides from Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, A.C.T. and Queensland. Shirley was pipped, 3-2, by Pioneer in the last round of the southern league, a controversial net call in the last set being blamed by the Shirley camp for its 16-14 loss in the tie breaker. It should improve further with tough competition in Sydney and reinforce its position as Pioneer’s closest challenger at the national championships.