Year 7 & 8 Water Polo - South Island Tournament

The 7 & 8 water polo team were lucky enough to compete in a tournament from October 29th to the 31st at Dunedin's Moana Pool. It was different, with a very quick turnover time between entry and game time, along with no spectators to cheer them on. But in these times, we were grateful to Otago Waterpolo for organising a well run and safe tournament.

Over the course of the three days, the team played six games. They started strongly, beating Columba 10-3 before coming up against the eventual finalists Breen and losing 9 -1. But, undaunted, the team got back in the pool and had two close games, one against Casebrook B, winning 5 -4 and then a nail-biter, drawing against DNI 6-6. Game 5 saw us up against the other finalist Casebrook A who gained 9 goals over us. This left us in the the playoff for 3rd and 4th against DNI.

What a game! The team went in strong, but so did DNI who scored 2 in the first quarter. We fought back and kept on going, making up the 2 goals. But in the last quarter, DNI scored and we did not have enough time to make it up, with the eventual score being 3-4 to DNI.

A huge thanks to Olivia Brown and Luana Ashton who coached the team all weekend, giving them clear advice and strategies - enjoying and celebrating the team’s successes and leading them in a great warm up dance! It was wonderful to see the team spirit and team attitude just get better and better over the weekend thanks to these coaches.

A great tournament. And waterpolo is looking to have a strong junior cohort in 2022!