Sports News

Girton Girls Intermediate Soccer Team competes at State Finals

On Tuesday 29 August, a team of girls in Years 9 to 10 had the amazing opportunity to compete at this year’s School Sport Victoria (SSV) Soccer State Finals in Melbourne.

We began our day with an early departure from Girton at 7.45am and arrived with not long before our first game of the day. Our team had trained for many weeks prior to the day, so the girls had a very well-structured plan for their warmup to prepare for their first game. With kick-off at 10.10am, enduring two 15-minute halves, Girton left with an extraordinary win of 9-0 against Mary MacKillop College Leongatha. Ecstatic with their performance, the girls were keen to take on the rest of the competition.

After a long break and time to refuel, the girls were up against Maribyrnong College, a sports academy–based school with very skilled and well-trained players, creating a big challenge for our team. Yet, the girls ran onto the pitch with confidence and held their ground, leaving the field with a nil-all draw and their heads up high, proud of their efforts against such a strong team.

Lastly, the team faced another strong side, Rowville Secondary College. Despite a handful of injuries and fatigued players, we managed to take the win thanks to an impressive free kick goal from outside the box by our centre-back, Ruby. Considering the girls were undefeated and displayed such an admirable performance, they were unlucky to miss out on the grand final based on a goal difference of two, putting Gippsland Grammar through to the final. However, the team was very proud of their own efforts considering the high standards of the competition.

Throughout the day, the girls were nervous, yet very excited to play. Positive talk was all that was heard before and after each game, supporting each other and maintaining an optimistic atmosphere between the girls, which I believe helped a great deal in developing resilience during each game. With the recent events of the Women’s World Cup, our team was very inspired by the Matildas' efforts, and even took on some of their tactics I had picked up on while watching the Cup and implemented these into our training sessions to prepare for the States. The growing support and progression of women’s soccer is such a relief for young female players like our Intermediate team – offering inspiring role models for the girls to look up to, and encouraging them to strive to improve and reach goals that once seemed unachievable.

It means a lot for our team to reach the finals and ultimately place third in the state. The team and I are very grateful that our school offers these opportunities to experience high-level competitions. We all felt very supported and prepared for the day with the help from the school staff and my co-captain Fraser Lee, who all helped make this experience possible. Although the girls had not been playing together for long, they all bonded with their ambition to win and many laughs, creating one strong team. The extent to which these girls trained for this comp was also pretty outstanding – training at lunch once a week for nearly the entire term, with two sessions the week before the competition. This intensity of training was definitely worth it as our team was highly prepared and skilfully trained for the day.

I’m so proud of the girls and their efforts. It was an honour coaching them throughout the year and I’m very grateful for this opportunity. I look forward to hearing how these girls improve throughout the rest of their schooling years and wish them all the best for next year when they bring the cup home!

Emily Russell

12 Millward

Years 7 and 8 table tennis players star on court

On Monday 4 September, Girton’s Year 7 and 8 table tennis players took to the court in the 2023 Sandhurst Table Tennis Tournament.

After many weeks of practice, these players were excited to take on the best schools of Central Victoria and the players showed from the start that they were comfortably able to mix it with the Bendigo’s best table tennis players.

The Year 7 Boys team (Uvi Arora, Marana Murray, Arlo Dimsey and Lucas Chen) performed brilliantly in their first-ever appearance at interschools. The boys took the fight right up to the other schools in their pool and very narrowly missed out on a place in the final, coming third for the day.

The Year 8 Boys (Jesse Brook, Levi Brain, Affan Qureshi and Atticus Seiter) were the surprise packet of the tournament, jumping out of the blocks to thrash their first three opponents and cruise to the very top of their pool. They again won the semi-final easily against Victory College to book a place in the grand final. We knew that Bendigo South East would be a tough opponent in the grand final and unfortunately the fairytale victory wasn't to be as the boys lost a hard-fought match against BSE to finish runners up on the day, which was definitely something to be proud of. All four Year 8 boys had not played interschool table tennis before, which makes this result all the more impressive. Jesse Brook was particularly impressive remaining undefeated for the day.

The Year 8 Girls team was the fairytale story of the day. Captained by Isabel Weibgen, the side jumped straight out of the blocks, comfortably dispatching all of their early opponents and booking their place in the grand final against Crusoe Secondary College. The girls went on to record a convincing victory in the final and will now go on to compete in the Loddon Mallee stage, which will be held on Wednesday 18 October. The performance of the girls to move through the day undefeated was made even more impressive considering Siera Madina and Rory Vendersmegt were Year 7s (playing up an age division) and Shinali Wickramasinghi was a fill-in. Bravo to the girls on winning the title yesterday and we wish them well at the Loddon Mallee competition in a few weeks' time.

All players are congratulated on their effort and application yesterday. The standard of play was terrific and the behaviour of all students was excellent.

Year 9 and 10 table tennis players hatch enormous comeback to win title

On Thursday 3 August, Girton was afforded the chance to field two teams in the 2023 Sandhurst Table Tennis Tournament for the first time. As we saw in the recent trials, this age group is very strong within the Girton Table Tennis team, and with a spot in the tournament opening up late, it was great to take two teams to compete.

Girton Maroon (Max Henderson, Luke Fisher, Ollie McKenzie and Anas Mustafa) and Girton Gold (Henry Bain, Henry Martin, Haoming Zheng and Lewis Ritchie) headed into the tournament with a steely focus and a fierce determination to bring their very best skills to the table (literally).

Both teams were standouts on the day, winning all of their early matches and eventually the inevitable happened – the Girton teams had to lock horns in the semi-final. There could only be one winner, and the Maroon team came out on top in a very tight tussle.

As mentioned, the intermediate team is very experienced and always performs strongly in tournaments. On this day though, it would be fair to say that some of the boys were struggling to hit their straps and to find their very best form. Serves were going unusually wide and many balls were uncharacteristically missing the back end of the table.

After beating their Girton Gold teammates in the semi, Girton Maroon fought their way through to the grand final against BSE and in the early stages things were still not looking great. At one point BSE were well up in the singles and right at the point of sealing the victory outright. Enter Max Henderson. At a crucial stage, Max wound up and played a huge forehand down the line to win a big point, keeping Girton alive and officially starting our comeback. Max went on to win this match and somehow leave the grand final door ajar. After many weeks of practice at doubles, the Maroon boys knew that they would be a huge chance in the doubles, and if they could somehow win all four games the Grand Final would all come down to points. Courageously, the boys dug deep and ground out victories in all doubles matches and, miraculously, when the judges counted up the points, the Girton Boys came out victorious. A most unlikely of victories, which 15 minutes earlier had looked lost. The Girton Boys (and coaches) were partly shocked at what had just happened, but mainly thrilled to have somehow clawed to victory. The Girton Maroon Boys will now take on the Loddon Mallee stage of the interschools early in Term 4 and we wish them the very best of luck.

All of the Girton players are commended on their spirit – especially digging deep in a high-pressure situation. Just as importantly, the behaviour and sportsmanship on the day was excellent, with the eight boys being excellent ambassadors of Girton Grammar School.