Southern Cross wins first cup in dramatic final

Southern Cross Catholic College has ended a 10-year wait by winning the Queensland Catholic Cup in a thrilling final at Downey Park.

The primary school’s Blue team, pictured above, took a nail-biting 11-12 Years Division A netball final 11-10, against Stella Maris Primary School, from Maroochydore.

Southern Cross won its first seven round robin games but lost the final match 13-10 to Stella Maris, which had won the competition in recent years.

However, learning from that result, the Scarborough school team changed its approach for the final and finished the first half level at 5-5.

Grand finale

After weeks of training hard after school, it all came down to the final eight minutes at Windsor.

In pouring rain, Southern Cross's teamwork and determination clinched the narrowest of victories and it’s first Division One cup since entering the competition a decade ago.

The players - Molly, Sophie, Emily, Nea, Tahlia, Hanisi, Alexis, Neve, and Olivia - were actually unaware they had won until a parent raced on court “screaming and clapping”!

Southern Cross also fielded a Red team in the 10-11 Years B1 Division against eight schools from across South East Queensland.

Learning curve

Red team won its first match convincingly, then faced four tough opponents. Learning from each game the squad finished strongly with two victories.

Congratulations to the players Tieri, Olivia, Dylan, Lorelai, Zoe, Marnie, Mia, Olivia, Gwyneth, and Ruby.

Southern Cross thanked its team of volunteers Mrs Gates, Mrs Jones, Mrs Murfett, Mrs Blansjaar (Red team umpire), Mrs Bould (Blue team scorer), Mrs Skinner, and the organiser of this squad for the past ten years, Ms Miller.

There was also a special ‘shout out’ to the assistant coaches, and role models from the secondary campus that have helped at training - Macey, Alice, Sienna and Abi.