By Zara D, Year 13

On Monday 3rd of February, a group of 10 students from years 10-13 headed to Marlborough College to compete in the English Schools Swimming Association Under 18 Water polo National Qualifiers.

Our first Match was against the hosts, Marlborough College and we started off the tournament well with a strong 13-1 win. We settled into the match quickly allowing us to take an early lead with the team playing very well together. Next Up we played Bedford Modern School; the team came together to read the play very well allowing some fantastic counter attacks throughout the match as well as some great long passes from Iskra in goal. We came out with a convincing 16-1 win.

For our final match we played against Highgate, a team we know well from previous encounters. Highgate had also won both of their games coming into the final match, so the result of this match would determine who qualifies first and second for national finals. We came into the match very strong in order to gain the upper hand which allowed us to secure a 13-0 win after managing to mark some of their key players out of the game. Our win allowed us to qualify first in our group for national finals.

Everyone played amazingly and we are looking forward to heading out to the finals later this year!