Returning home as National Champions, the Applecross Senior High School Division 1 Boys team have claimed the 2019 Australian School Tennis Challenge.
Matthew Burton (year 10), Reuben Giorgio (year 12), Kendrick Chia (year 10), Kent Yamazaki (year 9) and Oscar Giorgio (year 12) joined forces in proving to be a dominant force going undefeated across all seven matches.
A solid win in the Final resulted in Applecross SHS 3-6-42 defeating Marryatville High School (SA) 0-1-17 who were undefeated in the tournament before going down to the dynamic Applecross team.
Applecross Senior High School Head Coach Lee Jarvinen says winning the Australian Schools Tennis Challenge had been a goal the specialist tennis school had been working towards for a number of years.
“We won the event back in 2002 and have been working on getting back to that position for quite some time,”
“They’re a strong group and we’ve got confidence in all of them,”
“The depth in our line-up was a definite advantage, we could play the boys in any position if we needed to,” Jarvinen said.
Speaking to what stood out about the team’s performance, Jarvinen says the boys represented the school perfectly.
“Our school motto is personal best and mutual respect, it was great to see the boys showcase this throughout the event,”
“They’re a fair team who showed great sportsmanship in all matches, they did themselves proud,” Jarvinen said.
Losing only to the finalist and eventual winners who they drew in the pool play, the Division 1 Girls from Applecross played a solid tournament to finish fifth overall. Shanelle Iaconi, (Year 10) Ella Nurkic (year 10), Helena Jokanovic (year 11), Lucille Miller (year 11) and Madeleine Yeats (year 11) had a number of close tie breakers which unfortunately didn’t go their way, ending their run to the final playoff.
Jarvinen says the girls were simply unfortunate.
“There really wasn’t much that separated the girls from finishing in the top two of their pool,”
“It was a point here or there which meant they didn’t get to play off against the top two finishes of the other pool for a chance at the title,”
“They were definitely a chance of going further, they were just a little unlucky,”
Tennis Specialist teacher Lance Hinds also travelled with the group to Albury with games being played from Sunday 24 until Wednesday 27.
Twelve secondary schools from across Australia country competed in the premier secondary school team tennis event which has been played since1996. This event provides an opportunity for the best secondary school teams to come together to play each other and celebrate their achievements on a national stage.
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