New talent has emerged in the New Zealand Age Group Volleyball Beach Championship at Mt Maunganui. Jazmine Milton of Ngāti Wai, representing North Harbour, is leading the way in her section for the U17 girls.
Milton has been playing beach volleyball for almost five years and has her eyes set on representing New Zealand in Volleyball.
“I love beach volleyball, I love the culture of the sport and everyone supports everyone on the court. We get into the zone and we get into the game off the court. Those girls are like my best friends.”
Milton has teamed up with Sydney Clough. Clough has only been playing this sport for two years so looks up to Milton.
Clough says, “She's a very experience player so it's good for me as well because she is a lot more experience than me so I can learn a lot from her and she has been really good you can say a mentor for me on and off the court.”
80 teams have played in this tournament which caters for U15, U17, U19 and U23.
New Zealand Volleyball spokesperson Tim Cleaver says, “It’s good to see that level of competition they are in the mix of a selection process to get to the youth commonwealth games which is later in the year in the Bahamas.”
Most of these players will be back in two weeks' time when the NZ Secondary Schools Beach Volleyball Championships takes place.