Anna and Baileys season suffered a setback after Baileys bruised and swollen ankle forced them to withdraw from the Ohope tournament near the end of day 1. Bailey had rolled her ankle in Wellington but played on and felt ok to start in Ohope. They lost their first game narrowly but then won a game before her ankle flaired up again causing them to withdraw however they still finished in 9th place. The physio advised her not to play and so the girls had to withdraw from the Mt Maunganui leg of the tour. The tour has one last stop in Auckland for the big season finale--the NZ Open so Anna is hoping to find a new partner in time for that event. She has never previously qualified for the finals of the NZ Open so with the right partner 2009 could change all that!

The Wellington leg of the tour has just finished with Anna Scarlett and Susan Blundell winning a thriller 3 set final over top ranked German girls. Although the weather was pretty good today, Saturday was not so nice. Anna and Bailey were seeded 13th, and had a lead against the 4th seeds in their first game but were unable to convert it. The rain came down soon after and they then won a game but lost the critical one to put them up to 9th place. So they finished 13th. Tomorrow the tour moves on to Ohope where the girls will be trying to improve to 9th place.

Tahuna Beach again proved its the best beach volleyball venue in the country providing a stunning 2 days for the Tahunanui Grand Slam. 14 mens teams and 12 womens teams from all over the country and a men’s team from Chile took part while Brendon Heath was back in his hometown as No 1 mens seed and with new partner Greg Lindsay-Brown took out the mens title.
The top 4 teams played a round robin on day 1 giving Anna and Bailey 3 tough games losing all 3. However they need these tough games to improve. In the playoffs Anna and Bailey played Michelle Kenny and Marie-Claire Brehaut and had a very close match just losing 19-21, 22-24. They then won their last game easily in 2 sets to finish 5th=.

Dec 29-30 Anna and Bailey played in the Mauao Grand Slam at Mt Maunganui. Again in the double elim qualifier they won 1 and lost 2 and finished in 9th place. It was a bigger field than the previous week in Auckland and the tournament was won by Anna Scarlett and Susan Blundell. Jan 2nd Anna and Bailey flew south to Christchurch for the first stop on the 2009 McEntee Hire National Tour. Seeded 7th they first defeated Malu MacDowell/ Claire Albertson 21-17, 21-19. They then lost to Preston / Edmondson 21-11, 21-9 and then narrowly lost to the English pairing of Helen Brown and Rachel Turner 22-20, 21-15. The second set was made more difficult by heavy rain and a lightning storm! This gave them a 9th finish again.

Anna and Bailey finished 4th this weekend in their first tournament together. Seeded 5th they had to go through a qualifying tournament on Saturday in which they finished 2nd. This put them in a quarterfinal on Sunday against Sheriff and Underwood which they won in 3 sets. They then lost the semifinal in 2 sets to the eventual winners. A close fought bronze medal match was also lost giving the girls a 4th--a solid start to the season. Full results can be found here
http://www.geocities.com/mairangibeach/Open08.html