College sport: South Aucklanders dominate volleyball

Well led by Alvin Matauao and Jonathan Tauga, who were later named in the tournament team, Aorere College upset some of their more fancied rivals to win the Auckland secondary schools junior volleyball title.

Aorere were seeded outside the top eight but went through the 20-team tournament unbeaten.

Their victories in pool play included two three-set affairs, against second seeds Westlake BHS (which went to 26-24 in the final set) and Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate.

In the quarter-finals Aorere were too strong for Kelston BHS, winning in straight sets.

In other quarter-final action, top seeds Tangaroa College were edged by Westlake in a three-set thriller, Rangitoto College were too strong for De La Salle and Long Bay College beat Mt Albert Grammar, also in straight sets.

In a battle of the Shore, Westlake BHS beat Long Bay College in what many thought would be a one-sided semifinal. Long Bay had other ideas and hit back to win the second set 25-15 to level it 1-1. Westlake won the tie-breaker third set 18-16.

In the other semifinal, Rangitoto were denied the chance to make the final an all-Shore affair when they went down to Aorere in straight sets.

The final, at Avondale College, went to three sets with Aorere getting up in a thriller to beat Westlake for the second time while Rangitoto College edged neighbours Long Bay College in another three-setter to take third.

Second seeds McAuley High School took the girls title with their straight-sets win over hosts Avondale College. Like boys champions Aorere, the McAuley girls went through the tournament unbeaten, including four-from-four in pool play.

Top seeds Mangere College also went through pool matches unbeaten and eased past Manurewa High 25-12, 25-17 in the quarter-finals but then came unstuck in the semifinals. In an action-packed affair, they went down to Avondale in three sets after coming back to level it 1-1.

McAuley booked their spot in the semifinals with a straight-sets win over Otahuhu College and followed that with another comfortable semifinal win over Tangaroa College as South Auckland schools continued to make their mark. Mangere College beat Tangaroa in straight sets to claim third.

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Auckland

Avondale College kept their unbeaten record intact with an 83-run win over Macleans College to set up a classic top-of-the-table clash with King's College on Saturday.

Both are unbeaten in pool two of the 1A one-day championship and meet at Avondale with the winner assured of a place in the December 3 final against the pool one winner, which is shaping as Mt Albert Grammar after their narrow win over long-time rival Auckland Grammar.

King's made it three-from-three with their 56-run win over Westlake BHS 2nd XI (after a revised target).

Sent in, King's made reasonable progress to reach 95/3 off 25.1 overs before going on the offensive to post a massive 297/4 headed by Andrew de Boorders' 86, an innings which included eight fours and five sixes.

He was well-supported by Dean Cummings (79 not out) and Harrison Gould who smashed an unbeaten 49.

Westlake made reasonable progress in reply with Elliot Power battling to a match-high 98.

Avondale, led by half-centuries from Jeet Raval and Victor Davies, scored a healthy 239/9 from their 50 overs and, then led by Davies' five for 27, dismissed Macleans for 156.

Mt Albert Grammar, who had gone almost 30 years without a win over Auckland Grammar, made it two in two years when they just got up at MAGS in a thriller.

Batting first, the home team posted 206/8 from their 50 overs with William Good (56 not out) and opener Caine Hazelwood (42) holding the innings together.

MAGS then made hard work of it in dismissing AGS for 200 by dishing out a whopping 38 wides. With four wickets down and 100 runs needed at the halfway point of their innings, AGS were well-placed to mount a charge but came up seven runs short as Rocky Khan and Michael Jones, on debut, took three wickets each.

MAGS play Takapuna Grammar on Saturday well aware victory will book them a place in the final.

Takapuna came up short in the battle of the bottom as they and Kelston BHS chased their first win of the season.

Batting first, Kelston scored 173 without ever getting on top of the TGS attack as Casey Fretchling took four for 35 from nine overs. Daniel Moreton (46) and Praneel Hira (34) scored almost half of Kelston's runs.

In reply, Josh Blutcher led the way, scoring 50 as Takapuna battled to within nine runs of their target.

In another game which needed a revised target, Sacred Heart missed out by 11 runs in their chase for the 158 they needed to head St Kentigern College who had scored 239/9 in 50 overs.

Unbeaten going into Saturday's clash with Westlake BHS, Rosmini's winning run came to an end when they were thumped by nine wickets.

After restricting Rosmini to 150/9, Westlake charged to 153/1 in just 26 overs.

Waikato

A hard-hit century from Aidan Stevenson was not enough to steer his St John's College team to an upset win over division-one leaders Hillcrest High.

Batting first, the Dave Hoskin Trophy-holders posted 235 before being dismissed in the 46th over. Bryce Reed, batting at six, led the way with an impressive 74. Adam Flegg, at 10, added a much-needed 43 as Jarrid Foster and Sean Patterson picked up three wickets each.

Needing 236 for victory, St John's went on the offensive with Stevenson smashing a six in the first over. The loss of quick wickets slowed the charge. Stevenson and Paul O'Hallaran then added 102 for the fifth wicket to get them back on track before Stevenson, on 123 from just 89 balls, was spectacularly run out by a side-on direct hit.

O'Hallaran went on to reach 50 but ran out of partners.

Teams batting first all won, but in one case only just.

Matamata scored 154 - probably 40 short of what they promised at one stage - with Robert Corkill's 63 the only worthwhile contribution.

Chasing the modest target for victory, St Pauls were in trouble when they lost a wicket in the first over and stumbled to 45/4 before captain Nikil Ulal turned it around. With Ulal scoring 72, St Pauls were cruising when they needed just 20 runs from the last 11 overs. Ulal then fell to a disappointing shot and the wickets began to tumble.

They needed seven runs from the last over but were dismissed two short from the last ball of the match.

St Peters made no race of their game against Cambridge HS after reaching 237/7 on the back of Andrew Sclater's 93 which was well-supported by Scott Major (48) and Brad Steele (41).

Despite Nick Feat's impressive three for 22 from nine overs, St Peters took 70 runs from their last 10 overs to play themselves into a winning position.

At 108/3 after 20 overs, Cambridge were on course to hit off the runs but when James McKay was caught off Anton Kivell for 57, the chase faltered and they managed only 134.

Hillcrest are set to take the top seeding in next week's semifinals as they play bottom-placed Hamilton Boys' High School this week. In a key match for a top four finish, St Johns are at home to St Peters while Matamata will need to beat Fraser to keep themselves in the top four.