A NORTH Coast touch football side, featuring six girls from the Tweed, finished third in the New South Wales Combined High Schools Sporting Association (NSWCHSSA) championships this week.

Tweed River High students Zoe Nuss, Tarryn Aiken, Emma Gearon, Brodhi Avis and Olivia Attenborough-Doyle, along with Kingscliff High’s Emma Matsuto formed nearly half of the side, which is picked from a zone spanning from Tweed to Port Macquarie.

The tournament, which begun on Tuesday, featured representative girls’ sides from 10 other regions across the state, including eventual winner Sydney North.

Coach Les Watego was happy with the girls’ performance, particularly their early precision.

“They looked sharp and were focused on increasing intensity and doing everything at speed,” Watego said.

The well-drilled side got off to a perfect start with two strong wins against Western (8-2) and South West (11-3), before falling to eventual runners-up Hunter 5-4 in the semi-final on Thursday.

Watego said hosting the tournament put Tweed on the map, highlighting the local region and the quality of talent state high schools like Tweed River and Kingscliff were producing.

Aiken was a tournament standout, and along with Matiese Triseley (Macksville), has been selected for NSW to contest the national titles.