Little South Otago High School will be making its first appearance at the New Zealand secondary schools championships since 1998.
More than 2500 players from 252 schools competed in three regional tournaments for the right to contest the championships, which get under way in Auckland today.
South Otago joins 15 other hopefuls, including South Island qualifiers St Margaret's College, Waimea College, Christchurch Girls High School and Southland Girls High School, which is also attending for the first time since 1998.
It is one of the most hotly-contested events on the netball calendar.
The 16 teams are divided into four pools of four teams to compete in a round-robin format, the top two teams in each pool moving into the quarterfinals. The bottom-placed eight teams will play out for final positions.
South Otago is in pool D with Tu Toa, Pukekohe and Westlake Girls'. Its opening game is against Pukekohe this morning and it plays Westlake Girls' this afternoon.
Pukekohe is making its first appearance at the tournament and Westlake is returning for a second consecutive season. Tu Toa, from Palmerston North, was a finalist in 2012 and will present stern opposition.
South Otago finished second in the South Island secondary school tournament and will again pin its hopes on towering twins Abby and Sophie Erwood.
The sisters played for the Invitational team at the national championships in Dunedin last week and enhanced their reputations with some solid performances.
There is also a second set of sisters in the team and they have a familiar family name. Kobie and Mikayla Latta are the daughters of former Otago rugby captain David Latta.
South Otago HS
The team
Samara Hollows, Kobie Latta, Abby Erwood, Sophie Erwood, Mikayla Latta, Megan Morrison, Rebecca Stark, Caitlin Cook, Sasha Scott.
