THE Queanbeyan Netball Association has celebrated its first major success of the year to date, with its under 15s rep side taking out the NSW State Age Championship in Sydney on Monday.
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It was an incredible effort by the girls, despite dropping from division two to three this year, who went through 18 games over three days undefeated, taking 17 wins and one draw.
While they beat runners-up Ballina to their championship by just a single competition point, it was a win over them that secured the title and contributed to a vast superiority over every other team in their division.
Held between June 28 and 30, the tournament was played with modified, 15-minute per half games. However Queanbeyan scored a whopping 35 points in their round 29 fixture against Mudgee, a good score in any normal-length game.
Under 15s coach Tina Phillips labelled her girls' effort as "remarkable" considering they lost two players to injury and had an interrupted two weeks leading up to the event.
"This team has had a lot of ups and downs. Over the course of the season we've lost about six players, and a week ago we didn't even have a full team to go," she said.
"We scraped together eight players, and for them to perform that well was just outstanding."
The side scored a total of 387 points in the competition while conceding just 137.
Phillips said Sydney-Rita Fatamaala, in her debut season of netball, was one of the best on court, and said Michaela Callendar was outstanding in defence.
Queanbeyan Netball also fielded teams in the under 14s, under 13s and under 12s divisions.
The 14s finished 10th with nine wins, while 13s and 12s both finished 11th with six and seven wins respectively.
The tournament was held in Campbelltown and Wollongong, with 306 teams from 90 different netball associations coming together to play 2800 games.
