Violence is never the solution...

UNLESS VARSITY IS ON THE LINE, AS PRECIOUS ADESINA FINDS OUT AT THE WATER POLO

WOMEN’S WATER POLO

As the women’s water polo team geared up for their match, the UCL swim team celebrated their hard fought victory that brought the varsity score to 8 all. This heaped the pressure on the water polo team to follow up with a similar result, perhaps causing them to play with levels of violence and brutality that is normally reserved for Michael Bay movies.

It was immediately apparent that the commentator for water polo was clueless about the sport. To make matters worse, he proceeded to have a number of unprovoked jabs towards UCL. At some point during the match, he compared UCL to a German sausage because “UCL is the wurst”. Fortunately, we served him a generous portion of humble pie instead.

King’s dominated the first few minutes of the women’s game as their attack proved to be extremely dangerous. However, UCL’s strong defence held firm to leave the first quarter at one all. One thing I noticed about water polo is that the incredible amount of fouls. More often than not, it resembled WWE – Water Wrestling Entertainment. Two minutes into the second quarter, UCL’s terrific number 4 followed up her goal in the first with her second of the evening. King’s strong attack were let down by their lackadaisical defence as UCL scored another within minutes.

At this point, one of the King’s supporters got very agitated. She shouted at her team to up their game to the embarrassment of the people around her. Her friends’ attempts to keep her quiet were in vain as there was no stopping this fearless lady. Her words had the intended effect King’s recovered to close out second quarter at 4-4.

In the third quarter, UCL upped the tempo and maintained their territorial advantage over King’s. Their patience was rewarded with the lead at the end of the quarter to make it 7-6. In the final quarter, both sides were desperate for the win. The score was 8-8 with three minutes to play and the players started to take pot shots from every possible angle. Our brilliant goalkeeper managed save most of the King’s attempts and after what seemed like an eternity, the game ended 11-9 to UCL to put us in the lead for varsity.

MEN’S WATER POLO

The men’s water polo commenced almost immediately after. It was a tough one to call – would the sweet taste of victory be decisive for UCL or would the bitter taste of defeat motivate King’s to avenge their women’s defeat? As the ball hit the water, there was a hushed silence in anticipation of what was to come.

In one of the countless scrambles for the ball, the angry supporter behind me was enjoying the violence and punctuated the arena with her screams of “punch him in the face”. Her friends crossed their legs in the other direction, pretending not to know her.

UCL peppered the King’s goal with shot after shot. When the King’s goalkeeper managed to save a shot, our players were on hand to catch the rebound to launch another attack. Our shots were so ferocious that one broke a panel on the side of the pool. The score reflected our dominance as the first quarter ended 3-0 to UCL.

The second quarter followed a similar vein to the first. The King’s supporters refused to give up, chanting “come on, King’s, let’s go” to motivate their hopeless team. However, our fans were quick to helpfully finish their cheer with “home”. The King’s goalkeeper surely wished he could do just that as the second quarter finished 6-0 to UCL.

At this stage with the game all but over, King’s scored a couple of consolation goals to give their despondent fans a glimmer of hope. However, our fantastic men’s team were not to be denied and they saw the game out with a final score of 11-2. Well done to our water polo team for banishing King’s to where they belong.

All image credits: Luke Blackett, Pi Photographer