Water polo sides make splash at nationals
The Marlborough 14u girls water polo squad. Rear, from left, Amy Wong (manager), Paul Sell (coach), Hayley McCormick, Koko Wong, Lizzy Douthett, Violet Speakman, Jaimie Elrick, Eric Munro (assistant coach), Emma Sell (statistician). Front, from left, India Nathan, Carys McNabb, Poppy Clark, Gabby Miller, Chloe Sell, Katie Marsh, Libby Senior. Photos supplied.
Two Marlborough Water Polo Club teams took part in the recent national 14u division two championships in Christchurch and came away with hugely encouraging results.
The Marlborough girls’ team finished in second place, the boys coming 13th.
The girls had a tough opening game against Hutt, but ran out 6-4 winners after trailing 0-3 in the second quarter. They then beat Atlantis City and Otago 8-3 and 11-1 respectively to finish top of their pool and advance to the top eight.
A 15-4 victory over North Harbour was followed by a tighter 8-6 win over Rotorua, earning them a place in the semi-finals where they beat Waitakere 14-0 to qualify for the finals with a performance that was outstanding in both attack and defence.
Their opponents in the final were Hutt, who had given them their closest game to that point. Despite playing excellent water polo and dominating possession and chances, they came up against a Hutt goalkeeper who had an outstanding game, making 13 vital saves against a strong attack. Marlborough’s defence was also solid, restricting Hutt to long outside shots - five of which landed in the corner of the goal.
Marlborough ended up losing 2-5 in a tense encounter but came away from a national tournament as very proud silver medallists. The Hutt goalkeeper was named tournament MVP as a result of her performance in the final.
The Marlborough boys’ team were unlucky in that they were drawn in a pool of four with the two teams that would eventually go on to contest the final and the team that won the plate competition.
That meant that after the first round of games they were immediately playing for 13th to 15th. This they did with ease, beating both Southland and Sea Wolf to finish the tournament strongly.