The Otago development team has made an excellent start in its campaign to retain the Lois Muir Challenge trophy.
The province is one of four unbeaten teams after three rounds of matches in Wellington at the weekend.
Southland, Western and Cook Strait are the others.
Otago started with a comfortable 67-32 win over North on Saturday morning and beat Auckland Waitakere 60-45 in the afternoon.
It was less than impressive in its 56-32 win over Counties-Manukau, coach Janine Southby said, but overall the squad performed well.
"They were nervous at the start but came through with a very good win against North which gave them a lot of confidence," Southby said.
"But it was patchy [yesterday] against Counties, and not as convincing as I hoped we'd be.
"There were some pleasing aspects of our game play, and the young girls who came on certainly put on a good show."
Southby singled out promising shooter Kirsten Craig.
The 18-year-old has moved down from Palmerston North this year and impressed, landing about 80% of her shots on goal.
Emma Moynihan played well at both wing defence and goal defence, and captain and goalkeeper Jess Moulds defended stoutly.
Otago's next match is against Southland in Invercargill on Sunday.
"They'll be very confident after their three wins and it's always a bit of a grudge match between us."
