Semi-finalists decided as Old Petrian’s heats up for Sunday’s final
The competition shifted into a higher gear on Saturday, delivering closer contests, as the top four teams booked their semi-final spots on the third day of the Old Petrian’s U19 Girls Water Polo Tournament.
The event, being hosted by St Peter’s Girls Prep School, in Johannesburg, has 27 schools participating. It began on Thursday, and it concludes on Sunday, with the Wahoo Aquatic Centre hosting the final at 15:40.
St Stithians, Diocesan School for Girls (DSG), Herschel and Reddam House Constantia will battle it out for a place in the title-decider.
St Stithians was the first team to secure a final four place after they edged out Roedean in a closely contested encounter.
The defending champions took a longer route to get there, unlike Roedean, who did not have to go the route of a playoff match to reach the quarterfinals. To get there, Saints had to come through a playoff game against Clarendon. There handled the challenge well, winning 6-3, to book a place against Pool B winners, Roedean, in the last eight.
In the quarterfinal clash, Cadha Mosehla and Courtney Calenborne netted two goals each to lead St Stithians to another final four appearance at Old Petrian’s after a narrow 6-5 win.
Coach Julia Gaybba’s DSG finished second in Pool B, three points behind table topping Roedean. That placed them in the path of a red-hot St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls, one of the three teams that finished on 15 points in Pool C. But the Grahamstown girls were not focused on the past, they were focused on what was before them and they eased past St Dominic’s 5-1.
With that job down, they trained their eyes on the next prize, a semi-final spot. The opposition was tougher, but not too tough for them to overcome. Nelson Mandela Bay u19 star Amelia Brown led the way with a brace as DSG overcame St Anne’s by a 6-4 margin.
Meanwhile, Kayla Andrews and Inga Southey played their hearts out, scoring hat-tricks for Durban Girls’ College (DGC) in their quarter-final clash against Herschel. DGC came into the contest on the back of an impressive showing against St Mary’s, where Andrews scored another hat-trick and Southey came through with a brace, to secure a 6-3 win. However, Herschel proved to be a tougher opponent.
The Alex Hawkins-coached team showed that they had not topped Pool A – which included the two most recent champions, Saints and Crawford – through a stroke of luck. Herschel outplayed them.
In their quarter-final encounter against DGC, they put together a solid team performance that saw eight scorers combine to secure an 11-8 win. Herschel was led by Emily Van Heerden, who scored a hat-trick.
Hannah Banks then rounded off a day filled with outstanding performances by leading five-time champions Reddam Constantia to the semi-finals.
In the group stages of the tournament, Reddam lost a single game on their way to first place in Pool C. They were tied on 15 points with DGC and St Dominic’s but enjoyed a superior goal difference after netting 63 times while conceding only eight goals in six matches.
Most of those goals came from the hands of Banks. The Western Province star is one of the top three scorers of the tournament. In Reddam’s quarterfinal match against Kingswood, Banks scored four of the five goals that saw her team through to the semi-finals by a 5-4 margin.
RESULTS
Pool A
Crawford 7-1 Alex
Hudson 2-12 St Stithians
Kingswood 14-1 Rand Park
Pool B
Stirling 5-12 St Mary’s
DSG 7-4 Chisipite
Stirling 3-13 Roedean
Springfield 2-13 St Mary’s
Pool C
Reddam Constantia 18-0 St Peter’s
Collegiate 2-6 DGC
Rustenburg 5-8 St Dominic’s
Pool D
Westerford 3-3 Wynberg
Clarendon 5-4 Pearson
Wynberg 6-3 Reddam Helderfontein
St Anne’s 11 – 4 Westerford
Playoffs
St Stithians 6-3 Clarendon
DSG 5-1 St Dominic’s
DGC 6-3 St Mary’s
Shield Quarterfinals
Alexander Road 3-5 Reddam Helderfontein
Chisipite 12-1 Pretoria Girls
St Peter’s 4-2 Springfield
Wynberg 7-1 Rand Park
Bowl Quarterfinals
Crawford 8-3 Westerford
Stirling 6-4 Rustenburg
Collegiate 2-4 Kingsmead
Pearson 5-3 Hudson
Cup Quarterfinals
St Stithians 6-5 Roedean
DSG 6-4 St Anne’s
DGC 8-11 Herschel
Kingswood 4-5 Reddam Constantia
Sunday
@ St Peter’s Girls Prep School
07:00 – (101) Play-off; 07:35 – (102) Play-off; 08:10 – (103) Play-off; 08:45 – (104) Play-off; 09:20 – (105) Play-off; 09:55 – (106) Play-off; 10:30 – (107) 27th/28th; 11:05 – (108) 25th/26th; 11:40 – (109) 23rd/24th; 12:15 – (110) 19th/20th; 12:50 – (111) 17th/18th; 13:25 – (112) 15th/16th; 14:00 – (113) 11th/12th; 14:35 – (114) 7th/8th
@ Wahoo Aquatic Centre
07:00 – (115) Semifinal Plate; 07:35 – (116) Semifinal Plate; 08:10 – (117) Semifinal Shield; 08:45 – (118) Semifinal Shield; 09:20 – (119) Semifinal Bowl; 09:55 – (120) Semifinal Bowl; 10:30 (121) Semifinal Cup; 11:20 – (122) Semifinal Cup; 12:10 – (123) Shield Final; 12:50 – (124) Bowl Final; 13:30 – (125) Plate Final; 14:05 – (126) 5th/6th; 14:45 – (127) 3rd/4th; 15:40 – (128) Cup Final; 16:45 – Prize-Giving
