Melissa Tapper secures women's team event silver at Tokyo Paralympics

The 31-year-old was part of the Australian trio which lost to Poland's Natalia Partyka and Karolina Pek 2-0 in the best-of-three gold medal match.

She joins 2008 Beijing silver medallist Kathryn Ross (rowing) and two-time gold winner Josh Hose (wheelchair rugby) as one of the region's Paralympic medal winners.

Hamilton-raised Tapper (class 10), who is in her third Paralympics, was teammates with recently-crowned singles gold medallists Li Na Lei (class nine) and Qian Yang (class 10).

The Australians' gold medal campaign started with Qian Yang and Li Na Lei in the doubles, going down to the Polish duo in a 39-minute, five-set thriller (6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11).

Yang played in the first singles match against Partyka but was unable to stop the momentum of the Polish player, losing 5-11, 9-11, 5-11.

It was revenge for Partyka after the Australian defeated her in the class 10 singles semi-final earlier in the Tokyo Games.

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Tapper, who was to play the third and deciding match against Pek, was not required due to Partyka's victory in the first singles match.

The Australians won its quarter-final, their first match of the tournament, 2-0 against Hungary on Wednesday before backing it up with a 2-0 semi-final win over China later that night.

Tapper was not required in both those matches as the Australians cruised into the deciding match of the tournament.

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