By Evie S, Year 10

On the 21st of March we competed in the U15 Water Polo National Finals, having been crowned national champions for this age group in 2022.

To make it to the finals we had to play in the qualifiers at Highgate school. Thanks to the other two teams dropping out we only had to play two matches, against Highgate School and Kings School. In our match against Highgate, we won by 9-1, so 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 themselves, we first played Colfe’s School, and won 9- 0. After that, we played St. Bede’s and won again this time by 5-1. After that we went on to semi-finals and won against Alleyns School. We were in good spirits for the grand final, as we had won every game so far in the competition, however, we knew that Bolton School – whom we were about to play – were also unbeaten as well.

In the final it was an intense game, and very close. We were down by one goal until the last 10 seconds where Jaspreet G 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 matched by Bolton’s 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 second best in the entire country.