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South Australia and Tasmania claim maiden national water polo title

A combined team from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have shared a fairytale victory in the women’s competition at the 2014 20 &Under National State Championships water polo competition.

water poloA combined team from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have shared a fairytale victory in the women’s competition at the 2014 20 &Under National State Championships water polo competition.

With the team pulling together to beat Western Australia 5-2, the win sees South Australia and Tasmania claim their maiden national title.

The odds were stacked against the combined team at the beginning of the competition after they had only met for the first time at a team meeting the night before competition started.

Despite their brief gathering, the team hit the water the following morning to stage a come from behind 9-8 win over Western Australia, in what would perhaps be an omen for their championship success.  A loss late on the first day to Queensland was a reminder of the difficult task the side would face against state teams that had enjoyed solid training prior to the competition.

Further losses to the NSW Blues, who had looked to be the form team of the competition, and the Australian Born ’96 Youth Girl’s team again highlighted the task that lay before the combined team if they hoped to win gold.

Without proper preparation, the combined team were resigned to using the opening days of competition as their only chance to learn how to play together as a team. With their hardest games behind them, the lessons learnt paid dividends with a fourth day win over the NSW Waratahs.

The success of day four translated across to day five as the combined team were pitched against Queensland in their semi final. Unlike the first game, this one was a fierce competition that truly came to life in the final three minutes of play.  With the scores even at 7-7, the combined team set up an attacking effort around Ellie Stott, who had been in fine form all week, to score the winning goal.

Unlike their semi final game, the gold medal final was won in the opening quarter for the combined team, with Lucinda Swan and Chloe Barr combining to score three unanswered goals that would create the a points gap to Western Australia that was never challenged.

Coach of the combined team Grieg Richardson said the entire week had been 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.”

Further to their success with a tournament victory, goalkeeper Katie Blunt was named the goalie of the championships after a stellar gold medal final performance, with Blunt saying a team effort made her job between the posts easy.

“I am amazed that we came together in a week, our defence was clinical and the girls on my team made it easy for me,” Blunt said.

The 20 & Under National State Championships were run from July 8-13 at the South Australian Aquatic and Leisure Centre.

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