The North West School Sport Association girls' team stunned its opponents last week to become the best regional side in the NSWPSSA Tennis State Championships.
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Team manager Ryan Griffiths reeled off superlatives in his attempt to describe how big the team's accomplishment was, and said they did "really, really well".
"It was a fantastic result ... the girls ended up finishing sixth, which is pretty rare for us to finish that high," he said.
Two five-person NWSSA teams attended the championships in Rockdale - one boys' team and one girls' team.
The boys struggled against very tough opposition and, though they claimed a handful of good wins, finished 11th. But after the girls managed to come in sixth, the NWSSA earned eighth place overall after both teams' efforts were taken into consideration.
Two of the female North West players stood out over the course of last week's tournament - Bald Blair Primary School's Isabella Purvis and Ezarlia Cant from Oxley Vale Primary School.
Isabella was the top-ranked player in the North West team, and ended up in a playoff for the state side.
"She played off for the state team, which is an awesome effort," Griffiths said.
"She lost that set, so she went down to the first reserve for the state team, which is a massive effort considering she's only in Year Five."
Ezarlia, meanwhile, was the third-ranked player in the girls' team, but won the North West Player of the Carnival award for the "stacks of sets" she won, Griffiths said.
"She did really well, got stacks of advice from different people and just had a cracker of a week."
The players, he added, we "really stoked" with their efforts during the tournament, and came away with hugely improved self-belief by the end of the week.
"Most of these kids don't play anywhere near the amount of tennis that the Sydney teams play," Griffiths said.
"They come up against players that are playing a lot more tennis, so to walk away winning sets against these kids that they don't expect to, they're stoked about it. You really see them develop over the week in terms of personally, but also how they play their tennis.
"It's really rewarding for them, and also myself and the parents."
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