KELSO High School's Harriet Fitzsimmons has earned her second straight selection in the All Australian Team after captaining NSW to a long awaited podium finish at the All Schools Volleyball National Championships in Adelaide.
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The efforts of Fitzsimmons, 15, in guiding NSW to a bronze medal - their first podium since 1996 - didn't go unnoticed by the selectors who once again named her among the best at the tournament.
The third placing was extra satisfying for the NSW girls since they enacted revenge on Queensland in the bronze medal game after their northern rivals had beaten them earlier in the tournament.
NSW also overcame eventual gold medallists Western Australia in a cracking five-set contest but went down to the western women in the following semi-final rematch.
Fitzsimmons said it was an amazing feeling to earn the double delight of a podium and another All Australian prize.
"We played really well and the girls put in a big effort. We weren't expecting to get bronze because we came into the tournament a bit iffy compared to last year," she said.
"Queensland hadn't lost for a long time and we beat them in the bronze medal match which was really exciting. We were lucky to also beat WA earlier in the tournament which took a lot of work.
"Making the team was great. It's good to know that all the hard work had paid off.
"We've played together since day one, most of us, and we've really come a long way. In our first tournament together we didn't win any games but we've gone through several tournaments now undefeated."
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NSW may have lost their opening game to Queensland but the promising signs were there in a 21-25, 27-25, 19-25, 20-25 defeat.
The girls in blue took down the South Australian invitational team in three close sets but went down to the first string side in the following game.
It left NSW with an awkward 1-2 record but the team rekindled their semi-final hopes with a four match winning streak.
NSW scored straight sets wins over the ACT (25-23, 25-21, 25-20), Victoria (25-18, 28-26, 25-10) and Tasmania (25-10, 28-26, 25-9) before winning an epic match against WA where they fought back from two sets to one down (19-25, 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12).
Western Australia got their revenge in the semi-finals but NSW didn't leave empty handed after being Queensland 25-15, 22-25, 25-23, 25-7
"We lost our first game which got us off to a rocky start but the first game's already harder than the rest," Fitzsimmons said.
"We got on a bit of a winning streak and that got us excited. We did lose to South Australia but they had a really strong team this year."
NSW's great tournament continued into the boys event where the team came home with silver.
Kelso High's Hayden James coached the team to a runner-up result to complete one of NSW's strongest showings at the event for many years.
The boys team defeated the hosts in the semi-final but failed to overcome northern rivals Queensland in the decider.