Five compete in water polo festival
Five players from Woy Woy Wombats competed in the Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival.
The Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival covers four age groups and is the biggest tournament of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Teams from California, Queensland, NSW, ACT, Western Australia, along with the host nation competed in the 12th edition of the event in Auckland.
Jaryd Lynch was part of the NSW Under-16 Country team that won silver, Eleanor Duell Ferguson and Georgia Perkins were part of the NSW Country Girls team, Jess McCarthy was part of the NSW Girls Under-15 Combined High Schools team and Brittany Tait was a member of the NSW Under-18 Girls team that won bronze, all of which were from the Woy Woy Wombats.
The NSW Under-16 Country side, coached by Josh Magann and managed by dual Olympian Dan Marsden, had comfortable victories over Wharenui and Hutt, followed by a one-goal win over the Queensland Maroon team.
The quarter final was another one-goal win against the Corona Del Mar Blues from Newport Beach California.
In a closely fought semi, Country triumphed over Tauranga to advance to the gold medal play-off.
NSW Country went down to the NSW Blues six-three with the game in the balance until the final minutes.
The Girls Under-16 team finished equal fifth in the 23 team tournament, losing just one match, before going down in the quarters to eventual champions, NSW Blues.
The Country side finished 15th, suffering several narrow defeats against Mountfort Park and Queensland White respectively.
Following the tournament, Combined High Schools played New Zealand Under-15s in three test matches.
The Kiwis were too strong and comfortably won the series.
At the presentation ceremony, Jess McCarthy and Talia Allan were named joint most-valued players for NSW.
In the Under-18 tournament, Brittany Tait co-captained the NSW Blues to a bronze medal.
Her side's only defeat came against the powerful North Harbour club in the semi-final.
Tait will now tour Hawaii with the Australian Country team.
Coached by Peter Donohue and 2015 World Championship Target Squad member Nick Hawthorne, the NSW Under-18 Waratahs won all of their round games, with the exception of a close loss to Queensland.
This put the Waratahs into the quarter-finals, where they accounted for local side Waitakere, with a 14-3 win.
The Waratahs then faced the NSW Blues side and went down 6-3 in a hard fought battle where the scores went 0-1, 1-1, 2-3, 3-6.
The Blues capitalised on a simple mistake in defence late in the fourth quarter, and went up 5-3 while the Waratahs had a player ejected before securing victory with a goal in the dying seconds.
The Waratahs then faced locals Marist Red and took control from the outset, winning the bronze medal 8-5.
Email, 1 Aug 2012
Steve Allan, 2GO's Locker Room