Page 9 - Southwell_The Chronicle JULY
P. 9

ALUMNI FEATURE
MAKING HER MARK IN BEACH VOLLEYBALL
OLIVIA MACDONALD OLD GIRL, 2007-2008
ISouthwell Memories
absolutely loved Southwell and have extremely fond memories of the place! Initially, coming from Piopio, I felt like a little untamed country bumpkin. Southwell definitely helped me grow in more
ways than one. During my time there, as a boarder, I made such amazing friendships and even today we all still keep in contact. The Oliver twins and I were often causing trouble and I’m sure we caused some stress for Miss Mac and the rest of the Boarding House staff.
‘I can remember always thinking that the Boarding House was like having a slumber party every single night’.
Mr T will forever be my all-time favourite teacher! I was never an A+ student but still enjoyed Southwell. I feel as though Southwell empowered their students and gave us the confidence to stand out in whatever area we felt passionate about. For me that was sport; Southwell did not have a volleyball team while I was there (I’m not sure if I even knew what volleyball was then) but I was encouraged to play as many sports as possible and to stay active.
One thing I will always remember from Southwell is being put in the C netball team then being immediately moved
to the A team. I also played touch rugby, basketball and cricket. Singing was not a strength. I auditioned for
the school choir but was not selected, then was too scared to audition for the Opera so volunteered to be part of the lighting crew, I still felt pretty important!
Beach Volley Ball
My high school years were spent at New Plymouth Girls High School. While there I started playing indoor volleyball for fun and then worked my way up to the National Women’s team. In 2013, after realising that I would never excel internationally, I transferred over to
Beach Volleyball and represented New Zealand in the Under 19 squad. I was then picked up by the University of Arizona!
Career Highlights
While at college my greatest achievement was having my Beach Squad qualify for the NCAA National Championship. Now, it would be being the current NZL number one.
In May last year, after four years of studying and playing Beach Volleyball, I graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Sports Management. Once I graduated I ‘declared pro’ in Italy.
I trained and played in Italy for four months (June - September) then returned home to enter the New Zealand pro circuit. My Beach Volleyball partner, Francesca Kirwan, and I finished our New Zealand season as the number one team in the country.
Future Aspirations
Our goal for this season is to qualify
for the 2020 Olympics. New Zealand has never qualified for the Olympics in Beach Volleyball so our goal is to be the first. The top 16 teams in the world automatically qualify. Unfortunately, due to the length of time we have been playing we’re unable to collect enough world ranking points to qualify this way. Our pathway requires us to qualify through the Continental Cup which means we need to compete against
all the top Asian confederation teams (teams that have not already qualified) in three different tournaments between now and the Olympics. Only one team out of that process will be successful. Our 2019 season began with three 1-star World Tour tournaments in Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, placing 5th in all three events. We then played in three Asian tour events in Thailand, Vietnam and China finishing 9th in all three events. In June we begin our European season, basing ourselves in Italy, playing on the Italian pro circuit and in a range of World Tour tournaments across Europe.
Photo supplied
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