Volleyball: Tauranga athlete adds U17 Men's NZ Provincial Champion and Tournament MVP to achievements

Scott Shipton adds U17 Men's New Zealand Provincial Champ, Tournament MVP to his achievements. Photo / Supplied

He's won a National Secondary Schools Volleyball title with his Tauranga Boys' College side and been selected for New Zealand Indoor and Beach Volleyball squads - now Scott Shipton can add U17 Men's New Zealand Provincial Champion and Tournament MVP to his list of achievements.

Bay of Plenty U17 coach Nic Christie said as captain of the team, Shipton was a major part of their success at this month's competition.

"I saw his potential as a leader in the trials. He was often supporting the younger players who had turned up and it also helped that he was one of our major strike weapons," Christie says.

The team's manager Grant Muru says Shipton boasted a "humility and a calmness on the court which the boys respect".

Topping off a great weekend Shipton was also named in the U17 Tournament team along with fellow teammates Salem Tuaeu (Trident High School), Kapua Manihera Dou'ble (Western Heights High School) and Campbell Forsyth (Whakatāne High School).

In their first 3 pool matches of the tournament the Bay side wasn't really tested, beating Otago, Canterbury and Wellington - only dropping one set. However in their last match they lost to North Harbour relegating the Bay to second in their pool and a semi-final with unbeaten Auckland Manukau.

"Traditionally the Auckland teams bring a lot of energy and noise to the court," Shipton says.

"We knew if we could get on top early it would absorb a lot of that energy."

They did that by winning the first set 25-20, then losing the second 19-25.

Shipton says the team then dug deep to win the third 26-24 and fourth by the same margin to win the game and the right to face off with North Harbour, who had gone through the pool and playoffs unbeaten.

"We'd earned the right to be in the final but now we just had to play to our potential," Christie says.

Keeping accurate stats on the games helped with team analysis. They couldn't believe the number of service errors made in the previous days game against Harbour.

"We knew we had the fire power in the team to win but it's difficult to build any ascendancy when you're not getting it over the net to start with."

The night before the final they talked about how unacceptable it was, at this level, for serves to go into the net and how they'd need to adjust certain aspects of their game.

"I was so proud of the boys in the final when it was obvious they had made those adjustment." Shipton's performance in the match, combined with his teammates' efforts, was outstanding. Bay of Plenty defeated an in-form North Harbour 3 sets to 1 (25-21, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21), ending the tournament as national champs.