Barnett wins Women's North Island Champs

Rebecca Barnett has beaten former NZ Junior teammate Ellie Epke to win the 2014 North Island Championships.

SquashGym’s Rebecca Barnett has upset the top two seeds on her way to winning the Fitzherbert Rowe Lawyers North Island Champs at her home club today. Barnett was seeded third but showed why she was a two time New Zealand Junior representative over the past few years and she announced herself on the senior Squash scene today.

To get through to the final, Barnett had to first get past her club mate and training partner Danielle Fourie in the semi-finals. Fourie ranked one spot ahead of Barnett on the New Zealand rankings at number 6 has dominated local women’s Squash for a number of years, but now she has a formidable local opponent in Barnett. Barnett
surprisingly won the clash in an easy three straight sets. That victory set up a clash in the final against New Zealand ranked number five Ellie Epke. The two have history having played the New Zealand Junior final in 2012 at SquashGym. The then 14 year old Epke upset the favourite Barnett that day. “That match didn't cross my mind at all today, I have played Ellie a lot including recently at the Mitchell Cup, but that junior final was the last time we played here at SquashGym which is not a great memory for me,” Barnett reflected.

Barnett resigned that result to history today though with a comprehensive three sets to love victory over Epke to take her first senior women’s North Island title. “I tried to take her short today as I wanted to surprise her, she would have been expecting a strong length game from me so I wanted to change it up a little,” the Massey University Student said.

The victory should see Barnett go up a place or two on the next New Zealand rankings after also having a solid Mitchell Cup (National Club Champs) earlier this month. ‘I am really enjoying basing myself at SquashGym and being able to train with Dani (Danielle Fourie) and Kashif (Shuja), the environment has really helped me to stay focussed on my Squash while completing my Massey degree.”

Barnett’s next major focus will be the New Zealand Nationals where she will be looking improve on her seeding. “This gives me a lot of confidence going forward to the Nationals”.

Semi Final Results

(1) Ellie Epke beat (4) Georgina Shelton – Agar 11- 5, 11 – 4, 11 -7
(2) Danielle Fourie lost to (3) Rebecca Barnett 9 – 11, 8 -11, 5 - 11

Final result

(1) Ellie Epke lost to (3) Rebecca Barnett 10 – 12, 9 – 11, 6 – 11.