Silver Medals for WA at U20 National Champs

Western Australia has picked up silver medals in the women’s and men’s U20 finals at the National State Championships.

A combined team of Victoria/South Australia/Tasmania (Composite) emerged victorious in the women’s final with a 5-2 victory over Western Australia in a hard fought match.

It was a fairytale victory for the Composite team who first came together the night before competition commenced. Composite coach Grieg Richardson said the whole week was a learning process for his side.

“We only had 55 minutes together on Monday night,” Richardson said.

“We kept it simple and I think we won on defence, in a way we used the tournament to train, the games weren’t easy, but it was a steep learning curve.”

Despite the eventual score, the match was extremely close between the two sides as it came down to a defensive contest. Composite had begun with a strong first quarter to lead 3-0 at the break.

Unforseen at the time, the first term is what set Composite up for the win as Lucinda Swan scored twice with support from Chloe Barr, ensuring that Composite relieved any pressure they were feeling early in the game.

Coach Richardson said the first period helped calm the nerves of all the girls in the team, and the coaching staff.

“It was a brilliant start for us, and in that game it was a lot of goals for a quarter. It didn’t feel easy, but it was reassuring after that term. If someone had a heart rate monitor on me, it wouldn’t have looked so easy,” he said.

The second stanza really showed the tenacity of the WA team as they managed to slow the scoring rate of the Composite girls, limiting them to just one goal off Ellie Stott as WAIS athlte Jessica Zimmerman produced the first goal for WA.

In similar fashion to the second term, the third saw the teams inseparable as both sides failed to score a goal. Composite goalkeeper Katie Blunt was at her best as her team rallied around her with strong defence. WA also showed impressive defence to ensure that a win was not out of their grasp.

The final term again saw just one goal apiece as Barr bagged her second for the game, while Jiorja Ralston put her name on the board for Western Australia.

The win marks the first time that South Australia and Tasmania have won the title at these championships.

The NSW Blues created the perfect record of wins at the 2014 20 & Under National State Championships with their 11-9 win over Western Australia in the gold medal game.

It was a strong start for the Blues as they jumped to a 4-2 lead in the first quarter. Goals to Nic Brookes and Wil Cotterill coupled with a double from Jesse Deloraine looked to be setting up the NSW side for a textbook victory.

Much to the delight of the crowd, WA had other ideas and despite the loss of captain Nick Hughes to an eye injury, they came charging back in the second quarter to even up the scores. Andrew Ford (WAIS) scored his third of an eventual five goals, while Tom Sangster (one) and WAIS athlete Jordan Kremers-Tayler (two) found the net to see the scores locked at 6-6 by the half time break.

Filled with confidence, Western Australia continued to go punch for punch with the Blues in the third term. Jordan Lake took advantage in extra man for WA as Ford scored to put WA two goals clear with just under three minutes still on the clock.

WA’s slight advantage soon disappeared as Keegan Wicken produced his own goals off the back of strong NSW attack to level the scores 8-8 at the final exchange.

Eager to finish off a successful week to date with a gold medal, NSW dug deep in the final quarter to score a further three goals, two of which belonged to sharp shooter Jess Deloraine, with the other to Cody Ingram. WA managed just one more goal, with Ford finishing off the attacking play in the final two minutes.

WA coach Tibor Seress said that it was a bittersweet end to the week, but ultimately he was happy with his side’s result.

“We lacked game experience early in the week, and I think the boys really improved as we went through the tournament. Our only loss was against the number one team,” Seress said.

-WaterPoloAus