Saipan, Northern Marianas — New Zealand’s junior team delivered a dominant performance on Day 1 of the VICTOR Oceania Junior Mixed Team Championships 2025, winning both of their ties with convincing 5-0 victories over Tahiti and Cook Islands. 🇳🇿🏸
The Oceania Championships is one of the first junior tournaments globally to trial the proposed format of the event and the new scoring system. The young Kiwis showed great composure and teamwork as they adapted to the tournament’s new scoring format, which sees all matches played best of 3 games to 15 points. The fast-paced system has created exciting matches with quick shifts in momentum.
Speaking after Day 1, New Zealand’s Lezhi Zhu said:
“The team performed really well today and pushed through every challenge. A highlight was seeing how the new 15 points format can go by so quickly. ”
With two strong wins in the books, New Zealand now looks ahead to Day 2, where they will face off against Fiji and host nation Northern Mariana Islands. The team will be aiming to maintain their unbeaten run and continue building momentum as the tournament progresses.
The team event continues through June 10, after which the players will shift their focus to the Individual Championships, running from June 12–15.
Stay tuned as we follow the journey of this exciting young squad as they take on the best of Oceania!