New Zealand teams bring an international flair to the 2024 Australian Volleyball Schools Cup

In the 40 years of Australian Volleyball Schools Cup, over 30 of those years have included international teams from multiple countries including Japan, Singapore, China and New Zealand. 

In 2024’s competition, there are five different schools from New Zealand that are bringing an international flair to Schools Cup. 

Here at AVSC for the first time is St Margret’s College, located on the South Island, who are competing in the Open Girls Honours Division.

Teammates Delilah Brown and Julia Mitchell are really excited to see that so many other New Zealand teams also made the journey to Australia to compete.

“It’s really cool to see so many other New Zealand teams here,” Brown said. 

“It’s so cool because when we’re at nationals at home, we probably wouldn’t even be watching the other New Zealand schools.

“But here you say ‘oh they’re from New Zealand as well, so we’re not the only ones that came over to compete’.”

“Back in New Zealand we actually played against Otumoetai College who are also here, and we lost to them at nationals back home, so it’s like we brought our rivalry from home over to Australia,” Mitchell said. 

The team have really enjoyed the different style of competition here in Australia, but are also soaking up all the time they have to create friendships that go beyond borders. 

“The competition is really good and it’s a lot different to the New Zealand competition,” Brown said. 

“In New Zealand there are quite a lot of people who hit harder, which we’ve found different to here where more people tip and roll. 

“But I’d say there’s more good teams here in comparison to New Zealand where there are only a few really good teams that dominate the competition, while in Australia the talent is more spread out.” 

“It’s been really good bonding with other teams and we’ve made some really good friends, especially from Brighton, they’re amazing,” Mitchell said. 

“This competition is so good for being able to meet other people, because we would not have had the opportunity to do that back in New Zealand. 

“With these teams, it’s just so different – you’re making friends in another country which will hopefully be friends for life.”

Returning home to New Zealand in a few days once competition is over, both Delilah and Julia know that their international trip to AVSC will help to strengthen the cohesion of their team moving forward. 

“We’re only usually allowed to train twice a week but because we were coming out to Australia we started training everyday and it was intense, but just so much fun,” Brown said. 

“Everyone was so excited, so the training sessions just got better because everyone knew we were going to come over here.” 

“The team that we’ve got here at this tournament have all been playing together for some time so we all know each other really well,” Mitchell said. 

“It’s the same team since juniors, and our team is all Year 10’s and 2 Year 11’s, so we’ve been playing together for quite a while.

“This tournament has definitely helped our team get closer together, and when we go back home to New Zealand it’ll definitely help us in our future competitions.”