U15 Waterpolo journey to the National Finals

Written by Evie S

On the 21st of March we competed in the U15 ESSA National Schools Waterpolo Finals, where we were previously National Champions in 2022 To make it to the finals we had to play in the qualifiers at Highgate a week before Thanks to the other two teams dropping out we only had to play two matches against Highgate and Kings School In our match against Highgate we won by 9-1 putting us in the lead and ensuring we would qualify Next, we played Kings School, where we won by 11-2 securing our qualification with a strong lead

At the finals, we first played Colfe's school and won comfortably 9-0 After that, we played St Bede's and won again, this time 5-1 We then went on to semi-finals and played Alleyns School, where we also won We were in good spirits for the final, as we had won every game so far in the competition, however we knew Bolton-who we were about to play- had as well In the finals it was an intense game, and very close We were down one goal until the last 10 seconds where Jaspreet scored a top corner goal from halfway, by far the best goal of the tournament However, we had to go to penalties to decide the winners With Iskra as our goalie, only one goal was scored in the first round of penalties, however she was rivalled by Boltons goalie, who also only let one goal in. We moved onto sudden death, and still every goal was saved. However unluckily, on their 9th penalty they scored, securing them their win.

After our win last year, we were disappointed, however still incredibly pleased with the position of 2nd best team in the entire country