Defending champions NUS to face NP in NUS-GE Water Polo Challenge final

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.

National University of Singapore Sports and Recreation Complex, Saturday, 16 January 2010 - National University of Singapore (NUS) are through to the final of the NUS-Great Eastern Water Polo Challenge after an emphatic 13-1 victory over Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).

Matthew Chew and national water polo player Lin Diyang both contributed four goals in a comfortable match for the defending champions. Throughout the match, NUS held off their younger opponents to perfection and it was only during the last minute of the match that NYP managed to pull one goal back.

"The NUS team performed admirably against NYP. Our defence was watertight and this resulted in many denied attempts at goal for our opponent," said captain Bryon Teo.

NUS had a great start to the match with Matthew grabbing his first of the morning in the third minute. Marcus Goh also got on the score sheet and that gave NUS a 2-0 at end of the first quarter.

Danny Yeo started the second quarter on a positive note for NYP, forcing the NUS goal keeper into a save. However, NUS managed to get the goals through Lin Diyan who scored both goals in the second quarter. First, he scored with a counter attack, and then again after Brandon Lee gave away a penalty.

NYP struggled to find a way past NUS' solid defense throughout the second quarter with each player marked tightly. Captain Jonathan Mok would count himself unfortunate as his shot cannoned off the bar as NUS went into half-time 4-0 up.

Much of the same followed in the third quarter with Matthew scoring his second goal through a counter attack after 44 seconds before grabbing his third two minutes later to extend NUS' lead to a massive 6-0. The match was essentially over at this point with the question not about the victory but instead about how many goals NUS were able to score against NYP.

Diyang also stood out in this quarter, scoring three of his four goals. He planted his first of the morning right into the corner of the net before scoring from the flank. Diyang then added another at the end of the third to help NUS to a 9-0 lead heading into the fourth.

Four different NUS players got onto the score sheet in the final quarter. Joel Lim's shot from a distance found the back of the net before Diyang got his fourth goal of the morning with a neat chip over the goal keeper. Matthew also got his fourth goal in last quarter as NUS established a comfortable 13-0 lead.

Khalis pulled one back for NYP at the death just as the final buzzer sounded as the match ended 13-1 in favour of NUS.

With the win, NUS will next face NP for the title in a repeat of last year's final.

NUS captain Bryon Teo talked about how they felt about their opponents in the final: "The final against NP would be tough. The NP team consist of fresh players from the B Div last year. They are fitter - university makes you fat! - and have trained together since secondary school. The pace of the game would be different from what the NUS team is used to. We hope to be able to obtain a lead in the first quarter to gain a psychological edge against NP."