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Bay of Plenty's senior volleyballers are proving strong in the Secondary Schools Senior Volleyball tournament, with the region entering the most teams in this month's national championships.

About 40 secondary school teams are playing at ASB Arena today. Photos by: Cameron Avery.

About 40 teams from throughout the Bay, including Rotorua, Whakatane and Taupo, are competing in Round 2 of the senior tournament at ASB Arena today.

Volleyball Bay of Plenty administrator Maria Woods says the purpose of the tournament is for teams to gain rankings for the Secondary School National Championships in Palmerston North on March 23.

Maria says 160 teams are entered in the 2015 championships – with 21 per cent of those teams from the Bay.

'We've got Wellington and Canterbury in double figures with 12 per cent, everywhere else is single figures.

'The Bay is definitely the strongest. There's 15 boys teams and 19 girls teams going which is huge.”

While Maria says there's the usual good standard from all of the schools on court today, there's been some interesting upsets in the competition during the past couple of weeks.

'The Otumoetai D team are ranked higher than their B and C teams. That's happened with a couple of teams.”

Is that a good thing? 'Yes and no,” says Maria. 'Sometimes it could be a fluke. One team could just have a bad day and then they have to work to make it back up the rankings.”

Competition finals are at ASB Arena on March 15.

Matchups and results from today's tournament will be posted on www.volleyballbop.co.nz