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

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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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Waterpolo (Semifinal) - Hall 6 vs Hall 5: 18-1 (Hall 6 wins)

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Water Polo – Hall6 vs Hall5-Semifinals

The 1^st quarter started with hall5 winning the possession. Looking at the first 3 minutes of how the game went, the initial feel was that today’s game might just be an fairly evenly matched one, seeing the way each sides’ players marked and closed in on each other for the ball.

Hall 6 scored the opening goal in the 2th min within seconds where its initial attempt was foiled as the ball landed in front of the keeper without our players being ready to capitalize on the moment. Hall5’s offensive was intercepted, with the ball passed back to Kang Chien, our keeper, who pumped the ball up the playing field with his long passes.

4^th minute. A mistake in the Hall 5 defense led to the 2^nd goal. The next Hall5 offensive was neutralized by poor passing in front of our goal. And another attempt, foiled in the 6^th minute. Hall 5 driver received a long pass, but failed to convert it to a goal as the team had not taken up position fast enough.

The first quarter ended with the score of 4-0. As the second quarter started with Hall 6 in possession, more of our novice players were fielded, and both teams could be said to be equally matched, judging from attempts made at the goals.

A close one for the Hall 6 team: In the 5^th minute, Hall 5 managed to land a pass to one their centre forward, who was waiting just 5 metres in front of the goal. The Hall 6 marker, on a miscalculated move, saw the referee issuing a ‘sack’ decision, leaving Kang Chien to fend for the goal himself. Luckily, in order to continue the offensive, Hall 5 had to do a pass from the current position. By the time Hall 5 players got into position, their advantage was over as Hall 6 managed to swim back in time to reorg the defence.

Hall 5’s next goal attempt was deflected by our trusty keeper. Awarded a foul, they tried again, only to have their high pass intercepted and there Hall 6 pushed the play into the other side of the pool.  Shot blocked.

Hall 6 scores at the 7^th minute, with our player swimming towards the goal and lobbing the ball over the keeper.  5-0.

Hall 5 scored their first goal in the 4^th quarter, as their player in the driver position, anticipated a long pass, lost his marker and freed himself to swim within 5 metres of the goal. Swinging his arm from that position, he delivered the ball under Kang Chien’s arm into the bottom right of the goal mouth.

As though fury was unleashed by this new development, the Hall 6 team stepped up on the frequency of their offensive, scoring a tally of 7 goals, including 1 from a back-hand. Courtesy of Yimin, Darras, Ben, and Jie Min, bringing the score to 18-1 at full-time.

Written by: Poh Shen

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Waterpolo (Quarterfinals) - Hall 6 vs Hall 9

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Score: 20-2 (Hall 6 wins)

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Waterpolo (Grp Preliminary) - Hall 6 vs Hall 7

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Score: 12 - 0 (Hall 6 Wins)

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Waterpolo (Grp Preliminary) - Hall 6 vs Hall 4

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Score: 14 – 0 (Hall 6 win)

Today’s opening victory was no surprise to the Hall 6 Waterpolo players. Our competition consisted of a team who were not as familiar with the sport.

The stark difference in proficiency surfaced as soon as the ball was in the water. Even though our captain, Ben, kept substituting the newer players into the pool to gain some match experience, the match was still practically competed only on the opponent’s side of the pool. As our Waterpolo players constantly placed pressure on the opponent’s goal, it was evident that Hall 6 was having the upper hand up to the final whistle.

This match served more as a warming up for the Hall 6 Waterpolo team. The next match will be held on Thursday, 18th Dec. See you at the pool then.

Story by: Wong Poh Shen