Beach volleyball duo Kendall McKane and Ani Doherty couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish their time at high school by winning the senior title at a recent tournament.

The Whakatāne High School duo teamed up superbly to win all six of their matches and take out the Bay of Plenty Secondary School Senior Girls’ Beach Volleyball Tournament, in their last time playing in the competition.

Kendall and Ani were both in year 13 and after finishing runners-up in 2023, had unfinished business.

They overcame Trident High School pair Piki Hemi and Jayd Hunia in a thrilling final 10-21, 25-23, 16-14 to claim victory.

It was sweet revenge for the duo, who fell to the Trident side in pool play the day before.

Kendall said she was stoked to pick up one final victory with her school, alongside Ani.

“It’s been so much fun playing with Ani the last five years at high school and we’ve achieved so much and grown together as players, so it felt really good to finish this year with a win.”

She said her focus has shifted to training throughout summer.

“Next for me in terms of volleyball is training and preparing for my upcoming New Zealand camps to hopefully achieve my goal of getting into the Asian Championship team for next year.”

Ani said there was some good opposition throughout the competition and Trident proved a worthy finals opponent.

“I was super stoked with our win. Piki and Jayd played super well and made us work hard for the gold.

“It was awesome to be able to take home a win for our last tournament representing Whakatāne High School and doing it with Kendall was pretty cool.”

Ani is continuing to play in tournaments throughout summer.

“I have the inter-provincial beach tournament [this month] and then will probably have various other beach tournaments over the summer.”

Trident’s two boys’ teams were sixth and 11th respectively.