Tourney rides crest of a wave

A thrilling final day of the University Sports SA (USSA) Water polo Nationals was battled out at the Joan Harrison Pools on Monday, deciding the overall champions in both the men’s and women’s divisions.

The competition, which followed a round-robin format with the team with the most points finishing top and crowned champions, went into the final day with a number of teams still in the running on both sides.

In the end it came down to the final women’s and final men’s matches to decide the winners. The University of Stellenbosch Maties came out on top for the women and the University of Cape Town for the men.

“It was superb, the tournament ran very well, the staff involved were awesome and everything went according to plan,” said tournament organiser Brad Rowe.

Heading into the final women’s match of the tournament, Maties and UCT were battling it out for overall honours.

Both teams went into the match unbeaten, but in the end Maties were too strong, winning the match 10-7 to deservedly take the title.

In the men’s division there was a final match upset that saw UCT come out on top.

The main match on Sunday evening saw Maties and UCT go head-to-head, with the sides finishing with a 7-all draw, meaning that Monday's action would go down to goal difference if both teams won.

UCT duly saw off Maties second team 12-8 to end the competition unbeaten, but Varsity College, who had lost their match against UCT earlier in the event 11-2, put in a superb performance and upset Maties 8-7 to allow UCT to claim victory. In all it was a fantastic USSA tournament, the first in three years, and hopefully has reignited varsity water polo for the foreseeable future.

“The only negative parts were that the national varsity body has decided not to send a team to the World Student Games which I feel is very negative, it does nothing for the development of the sport, World Student Games are next year and we should be sending a team,” said Rowe.

The water polo action now turns to the SA Schools tournament which gets under way around the city on Thursday, where provincial teams from around the country will be battling it out in their age group divisions. “EL was great, there were no problems, everyone had a ball and a lot of the players are staying as they will be coaching a number of the provincial teams that will be playing in SA schools tournament,” said Rowe.

It was superb, the tourney ran very well, staff involved were awesome