Women vs Surrey - 05/12/2022 (H)

BLWP 4 - 5 Surrey

The winter chill has set in, but it hasn’t put out the fiery spirits of the women of BLWP. 

On Monday we set out the face off Surrey (our first opponents of the year) on home territory.

The first quarter started with a bang. Defence was strong and brutal, Helsinki did not hold back as she was sent out twice within the first few minutes. I hope she left scratches. Lil Sardine was aggressive on her player, getting the ball down to the other end of the pool time and time again. Unfortunately their goalie (who had to wake up for surgery at 7am the next morning) was a wall in this quarter, but we made many an effort to wear her down. After Helsinkis risky behaviour, Tadpole Isabel stepped into Pit D with vigour - her positioning in the water kept their Pit A solidly out of the game. Tadpole Leiah raced up and down the pool with her player - intercepting many attempts at a goal. Unfortunately we ended this quarter one goal down - but we were just warming up.

We knew we had them spooked after the first quarter and it was still all to play for. Tadpole Smaragda was full of fire today pushed forward on attack - drawing loads of fouls. Our first goal of the game came from Leech - who utilised so much space in the pool before lobbing one in. Tadpole Eira drew her player wide on the wing and kept cool as a cucumber during the man ups and downs. We ended the first half in good spirits, having kept our defence strong.

After a great team talk in the first half, it was time to set the rest of our tadpoles loose. Tadpole Holly positioned herself incredibly on the wing, bringing the ball all the way up to the edge of the goal, before the goalie and 2 players jumped on her - clearly they were scared. It was time for Incidor to give us a burst of energy, bringing us a goal that even she seemed to be surprised about. To rub salt into the wound, Tadpole Smaragda squared up to their goalie and got another across the line. Despite her devastating illness, Tadpole Martha outswam her player on many occasion and kept the ball out of the way of the goal. At some point, Marina Coil managed to get her first major foul, it was a proud moment.

The final quarter and we were neck and neck. Anglerfish decided that if her player wasn’t going to let her move in Pit A, she was just going to leave her behind. At some points she was going after a few players at once, really overcoming the concept of time and space. Tadpole Eira carefully used a man up to completely evade any kind of defence and score another goal. Unfortunately the match came down to the last 10 seconds, where a final goal was thrown in by Surrey. Nevertheless it was an incredibly close game, with a score of 4-5 to Surrey, showing how much our girls have improved in such a short period of time.

Player of the match goes to Leech for some excellent communication and a fabulous goal, as well as some great energy in starting seven!