After dominating the local schools day in late June and then winning the regional title at the end of July, Catherine McAuley earned the right to take on the seven other year five and six qualifiers from all over NSW.

St Patrick’s Primary Albury, St Mary’s Casino, St Mary’s Noraville and North Coast’s Wauchope Public School will compete in pool A of the division, while the Orange school will clash with Gerringong Public School, St Francis Xavier’s Narrabri and Our Lady of the Way Emu Plains in pool B.

“So far in Schools Cup the girls are undefeated, we’re very proud of them,” Lucy Connor, Catherine McAuley’s netball coach, said.

“They definitely have a chance, but this competition will be pretty fierce.

“So far from what I’ve seen of them they’re showing a huge amount of talent. They’re a very good side when they play together.

“They feed off each other, and play to each other’s strengths.”

Catherine McAuley takes on Gerringong in its opening clash at Sydney’s Anne Clark Netball Centre from 10am on Tuesday. Connor said she had prepared her girls to face teams much taller than them.

“They’ll definitely have a height advantage,” she said.

“I would think they will be very big, so we need to focus on our speed to counteract that, go around and not over.

“But we’ve had some James Sheahan [Catholic High School] students come down a couple of times. Charlotte and Brigette Jasprizza have come down quite a few times and helped us out, and we would struggle to get better coaches than those two.”

All but one of the Catherine McAuley side are also gearing up for the Orange Netball Association 12 years blue grand final today at Orange PCYC.

Playing for the undefeated CYMSationals, the girls will line up against OPS Arrows in today’s decider from 9.55am.