Elisapeta Toeava (born 1994) is a

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player who was born in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

and moved to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. A player for the

Northern Mystics Northern Mystics are a New Zealand netball team based in Auckland. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Northern in the ANZ Premiership. Netball Northern is the governing body tha ...

team in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, as of the end of 2021 she had also played three matches for the

New Zealand national netball team The New Zealand national netball team, commonly known as the Silver Ferns, represent New Zealand in international netball. The team take their nickname from the Silver Tree Fern (''Cyathea dealbata''), which is an emblem for many New Zealand s ...

Early life

Elisapeta Toeava, known as "Peta", was born in Samoa on 10 March 1994. She has nine sisters and two brothers, one of whom is the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player,

Isaia Toeava Isaia "Ice" Toeava (born 15 January 1986) is a professional rugby union player from New Zealand. Early career Toeava was born in Samoa but moved to New Zealand in 1994 to live with his grandmother. He attended De La Salle College, Mangere Eas ...

, who played 37 times for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

. Like her brother, Toeava moved to New Zealand, where she was brought up by her grandmother. She attended McAuley High School in

Ōtāhuhu Ōtāhuhu is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand – to the southeast of the CBD, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east. The isthmus is the narrowest connection between the ...

, a suburb of Auckland.

Netball career

A member of the New Zealand Secondary Schools team, which beat Australia, Toeava was recruited by the Northern Mystics in 2013 while she was still at school and playing for the Carlton United team. After a successful first season, during which she played for the New Zealand Under-21 team, she decided to take a break from the Mystics, as she suffered from shyness. She returned to the team three years later in 2017 and was named the team’s

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

in 2018. Playing as a Centre (C) or Wing attack (WA), from 2019 she formed a successful partnership at the Mystics with

Grace Nweke Grace Nweke is a New Zealand netball international. She first competed for New Zealand in September 2021, becoming the fourth person of African descent to play for the team, following in the footsteps of Irene Van Dyk, Leana de Bruin and Karin ...

, the first woman of African descent to play for New Zealand. Toeava made her first appearance for the ''Silver Ferns'', the New Zealand national team, in September 2018, against England, becoming the 170th woman to play for the team. When not playing netball, Toeava has worked part time at a south Auckland children’s day-care centre.

References

External links

Toeava discusses her career
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toeava, Elisapeta 1994 births Living people New Zealand netball players New Zealand international netball players Samoan netball players Northern Mystics players ANZ Premiership players National Netball League (New Zealand) players Netball players from Auckland New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent People educated at McAuley High School