Pearson girls bubbly in polo bouts
UP against formidable opposition at the Old Petrians water polo tournament in Johannesburg, Pearson High’s girls did exceptionally well to finish runners-up at the weekend.
The Port Elizabeth school came up against a tough Reddam House team from Cape Town in the final.
In a tightly contested game, the Pearson girls of Summerstrand fought with great heart and determination before finally going down 5-3.
It was Pearson’s second appearance at the tournament, which incorporates 28 top schools from around South Africa, and their first time in the final.
Special mention needs to be made of stars Cayli van Thiel, Kelsey Vaughan and Miricke du Plessis.
Du Plessis received the best defender of the tournament award.
The Pearson’s girls were put into the pool of death in the preliminary phase where they came up against Rustenburg Girls, Kloof, Pretoria Girls, Wester- ford, Roedean and Chisipite from Zimbabwe. The Bay girls faced the big challenge of six games on the first day, including a clash with Roedean for the top position in the pool.
With a late goal through the efforts of Hannah Werth and Van Thiel, Pearson ended first on goal difference.
This put them in the quarterfinals against top KwaZulu-Natal side Durban Girls’ College.
In a fine match which ended in a penalty shoot-out, Pearson won 9-8 to set up a semifinal against champions St Mary’s of Johannesburg.
Despite strong support for St Mary’s, Pearson rose to the occasion to win in another shoot-out, 5-4.
ý In East London, the Pearson under-14A water polo girls took the honours in the Jason Murray tournament.
After beating Clarendon (5-1), Cambridge (20-0) and Grahamstown’s Diocesan School for Girls (6-0) on the opening day, Pearson followed up with wins over Collegiate (13-1) and Hudson Park (5-3).
This put them into the final against Clarendon, where Pearson won convincingly 7-1. THE Pearson under-15 volleyball team will be competing in the Indigo Parktown tournament starting on Friday at Parktown Boys’ High.
The boys will compete in a roundrobin format in four pools of five teams before a knockout stage. The finals will be played on Sunday. The relatively new tournament is by invitation only and caters for some of the top volleyball teams in the country, including Cape Town’s Sacs, Clifton, Bishops, Reddam, Rondebosch, St John’s, Affies and King Edward School.
The Pearson team, coached by old boy Merrick Fairral, boasts four provincial players.
The school’s girls first team is No 1 in South Africa, with four players in the national team and seven in the EP under-18A side.