Sports News
Casey North Division Tennis Competition
It was an amazing day for Nossal at the Casey North Division Tennis Competition! The Intermediate and Senior boys’ and girls’ teams played at the Pakenham Regional Tennis Centre and came away with a clean sweep across all teams, advancing to regionals!
The day was so much fun, and everyone enjoyed themselves both on and off the court.
Despite a light sprinkle of rain, play continued without a hitch. The matches were played in great spirit, with lots of laughs and encouragement throughout the day.
It’s fantastic that all four teams made it through to the regional stage with reasonable ease. We worked together, supported each other, and had such a good time along the way.
A huge thankyou to Mr Harnath and Ms Wen, who kept us going throughout the day and made sure we didn’t fall behind scheduled play. Their support and organisation made a huge difference, and we truly appreciate it. We’re so excited for regionals and can't wait to play.
By Aakash Abhayawansa & Karishma Navaneetha Kumar
Nossal Intermediate Girls Table Tennis State Finalists Runners Up 2024
A bright morning marked the start of the SSV State Intermediate Girls Table Tennis final on the 20th of November 2024.
After a long train ride, we arrived at MSAC and began warming up with rallies and practice games, anxiously anticipating the arrival of the opposing teams. We wanted to make a special mention to Trevin T and Arjun P for helping us on the day, we really appreciate all of your effort to help train us and then still go and attend Speech Night, thank you so much!
Despite our nervousness and uncertainty about how the games would unfold, we defeated Bendigo Southeast, Merna Hills and East Doncaster, and emerged first in Pool A. We then advanced to the first semi-finals against Yarrawonga and we were all very excited. Previous Nossal Girls table tennis teams have made it to the semi-finals but not the final before, so we were looking forward to trying to change that!
We were all so surprised we had made it to the finals after winning 4 matches to 2 overall. Now, butterflies were in everyone’s stomachs as we found out we were playing the mighty Glen Waverley. They had won Year 8, Intermediate and Senior Girls Table Tennis in the last 2 years and had many student coaches including alumni helping them train and play during the day.
It was finally time for Sara, Parisa, Sayu and Saina to begin their matches. The rest of the team were behind the barricades trying to hold in their excitement and anticipation, cheering each member of the team on point by point.
After several long and intense rallies, the team managed to secure 3 out of the 4 singles. At last, it was time for doubles… with one match required to win overall. A few months of weekly training sessions had lead up to this moment...the hours of practice… It was finally time to showcase our efforts. The two doubles matches were not only physical battles, but mentally challenging ones too. With the 'state champions' title just at the tip of our fingers, we only just missed out. The deciding doubles went to the fifth set, with the result going 11-8 to Glen Waverley, with Nossal finishing a gallant runner-up and recording the highest placing in table tennis for females in Nossal’s history.
The team left shocked and ecstatic with how far we had come despite none of us playing table tennis outside of school. Now… Sara, Parisa, Sayu, Saina, Amra and Yunaizah can call themselves state runners up and have the medals to prove it!
Thank you to Mr Armistead for sticking with us for the long run and helping us with all the training and allowing us to celebrate our success even when the final result did not go our way.
By Sayu Perera and Amra Fawazdeen