Local teenager, Kate Padovan, is hitting netball goals after being selected for the U/18 Northern Rays team to represent the region in the Nissan State Titles in Brisbane this weekend.

The 17-year-old will join girls from Cairns, Townsville, and Mackay in the Northern Rays team going up against teams from around the state over three days of competition. From there the 2021 Queensland team will be selected.

Kate started netball as a junior at Douglas Netball Association before working her way up over the last eight years to play in the winning team in multiple A-grade grand finals.

However, with Douglas netball not going ahead with a season this year, being selected for the Northern Rays came as a surprise to Kate.

“I was really surprised when I was selected as there was a lot of girls trialling and I haven’t been playing netball this year, whereas all of the other girls had,” she said.

Kate said it was tricky trialling for the team without getting any court time locally this year but she has continued to train by herself.

“From trials, we only had about four weeks to train so every day I have been doing fitness and strength training by myself,” she said.