This past weekend marked the second sporting event of the Fisher Shield calendar: water polo. The tournament pits the six colleges against each other in 6 on 6, 20 minute water polo games. The top four colleges for both the men and women's side advance to the semi-finals and then the finals. We as Saints were feeling rather confident, at least the guys were, after our strong performance in the swimming carnival. Here is a brief synopsis of the weekend.
1. We had four games on Saturday against George Roberts, St. Marks, Rotary and Western Courts, and University Hall. Our first game was against George Roberts and we had a slow start but managed to come away with a draw. St. Marks is our biggest, most hated rival and we destroyed them 16-3. We handed Rotary and Western a 13-3 defeat. The day had taken its toll on all of us, bumps, bruises and scratches. Our last game was against Uni Hall. We got beat pretty easily, though I did score one of our three goals. For the day we went 2-1-1. I was such a slug on Saturday night.
2. We had a game at noon on Sunday against John Flynn. We knew we had a good enough record to advance into the semis but we were jockeying for our seed position. Uni Hall had secured the number 1 seed and either us or George Roberts were going to be 2 or 3. Although we beat John Flynn, George Roberts also won their last game. We both had a 3-1-1 record but because they had a better goal differential, they got the number 2 seed. No matter, we were going to be playing them in the semis anyway. The Saint ladies went undefeated in the ladder and secured a semi against St. Marks.
3. The girl's played their semi game first and absolutely crushed Marks to get into the final against Uni Hall. Our semi final game was so intense. It seems as though our previous game against George Roberts was an accurate representation of our two teams because for eighteen and half minutes it was evenly played, cut throat aggression that left us at 5 all. A moment for glory. With a minute and half left and with us Saints playing a little flustered I somehow broke from my marker, received a perfectly delivered pass and fired a shot into the lower right hand corner. We held onto the ball to win 6-5. An all Saints - Uni Hall finals. Intense.
4. The Uni Hall girl's came with something to prove and jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first half. Our Saint ladies fought back though and after some questionable officiating in the last minute ended up losing it 14-13. Such a good game. Let me just paint this picture for you. There were about five people deep along two sides of the pool from both colleges, decked out in either red, yellow and blue or green and gold just screaming. The bongo was there and the Uni Hall Wolf Pack were in full force. People had noise makers and signs: quite the spectacle. So when we Saints took to the pool for the final game, we were totally on an adrenaline high.
5. Now, we played that final game as best as we could and gave Uni Hall a run for their money. They ended up winning 13-9, much closer than our first game. Though I didn't score I still played very aggressive, being sent off twice for fouls (apparently you are not allowed to grab guys by the head and push them under or swim over top of them to prevent a shot...oh well). I had such a great time and it reminded me why I love competitive sports.
The weekend was such a blast and I was so proud of all the Saints. Last year the guys came in last place. It's about things change around here.
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