Waterpolo(Finals) - Hall 6 vs Hall 3: 5-9 to Hall3

Published by Publications Team | Filed under Waterpolo

Being the concluding match of this year’s Hall Olympiad Sports Competition, the supporters from both Hall 3 and 6 came down in full force. Each standing on their sides of the playing arena, Hall 3 and 6 supporters, armed with yellow sand-shakers and green bottles respectively, were all set to cheer their all for their teams.

Hall 3 opened the scoring for tonight’s match, leading with 0-1, barely a minute into the 1st quarter. Hall 6. dawning the white caps for tonight’s match, retaliated, as Darras tapped in the high pass from Yimin, matching it 1-1. Subsequent tries on the Hall 3 Goal didn’t go so well, due to several mis-passing and miscommunication, which allowed Hall 3, who seem to have many strong swimmers in the pool,  to break through the defences. The first quarter ended with the score 1-3, favoring Hall3.

Any spectator by the pool would have to agree that the 2nd quarter was way more intense than the first. All players into the game, marking their opponents tightly and tugging each other underwater in order to position themselves for the ball. Winning the opening ball, Hall 3 opened the scoring once again. Hall 6 attempted many shots at the goal- a lob went too high, landing on the net. And a powerful shot from Yimin near the middle of the
playing field went over the post, missing it slightly. In between those attempts, Hall 3 landed another goal, bring the score to 1-5, intercepting a poorly-aimed pass, which saw the ball being brought all the way in front of the goal post, where Kang Chien had minimal chance of blocking.

The one and only opportunity which our guys converted
to a goal came 3 minutes before the end of half time. With a Hall 3 defender sacked for swimming over Darras in front of the goal post, the team gained a temporary 5-on-4 advantage. As all the players swam into their supporting positions, Darras waited patiently for Yimin to swim up, and the latter caught the high pass, tapping it cleanly into the right corner, away from the reach of the Hall 3 keeper.
 The second quarter ended at 2-6 , not before Hall 3 pumped another ball into our goal.

Darras scored first in the third quarter, bringing the score to 3-6. The relentless assault on for the goal, headed by Yimin and Darras to try pull the score closer were mostly blocked: twice by the keeper and the third time, the ball landed short of the goal, as the arm motion of the player who attempted to score caught on one of the Hall 3 player’s head, dislodging his cap.  Following on, miscommunication in front of the opponent’s goal led to the loss of ball possesion, and Hall 3 brought the score to 3-7.

The 4th quarter was just as intense, as our team gave whatever they had left in them to close up the gap in scoring. The score was brought to 5-8, and by then both sides were visibly tired out. Powerful shots were taken at the opponent’s goal at long range, but failed to convert as they were, almost all the time, slightly positioned too high over the top post.

The whistle blew for full-time, with the score standing at 5-9 to Hall 3. Truely a battle of the best. Tonight, with the best teams pitted against each other, Hall 3 had clinched the Waterpolo Champions title from our hall, last year’s champions. With Hall 3 garnering enough points to be crowned Overall Sports Champ this year as well is no doubt going to be a fact found difficult to swallow.

This year’s Hall Olympiad, unlike the previous years, has been an eventful one, marred with numerous disputes and appeals. Nevertheless, as the night ended, all differences and disputes were buried at the pool. Both halls celebrated, taking photos dunking their Sports Directors to mark the end of IH.

Written By: Poh Shen

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