IVP Floorball: Heartbreak for NTU men and women as both teams fail to make it through to final

Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Pictures by REDintern Mel Chandi

Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Friday, January 21, 2011 — A single goal each conceded by both the men’s and women’s teams towards the end of their games was all it took for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to crash out of the semi-final of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Floorball Championship.

The NTU men’s team lost to Institute of Technical Education (ITE) 6-5, conceding a goal milliseconds before the final buzzer. In the women’s semi-final, Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) handed NTU a 5-4 defeat in extra time to send them into the bronze medal playoff.

Despite being down 3-5 towards the last period, the NTU men’s team managed to score through a penalty taken by Brandon Cheong, bringing the game back to life.

They then managed a last gasp equaliser after a quick counter attack, but eventually conceded a heart-breaking goal to ITE moments before the end, effectively ending their title race.

“I think in the first period we gave them too much respect. However, we managed to regain our confidence as soon as we scored two goals against them,” recalled NTU team captain Hairiezzal Hairon, on his analysis of the match.

“We showed good fighting spirit throughout the game, but I think we lost concentration towards the crucial last few seconds, where we unfortunately conceded that final goal,” he added.

In the women’s semi-final tie, title holders NTU failed to qualify for the final, losing 5-4 just seconds into extra-time against the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), after drawing 4-4 in the last period.

NTU initially had dominated possession, having their fluid game up and running throughout against SIM. Their aggressive attacks in the first period had SIM pushed back from as early as two minutes into the game.

However, with the NTU goalie substituted out in favour of an extra forward, SIM found the early goal ten seconds later through a surging counter attack to put the scoreline at 1-0 after capitalising on the unguarded net.

NTU only managed to equalise at the start of the second period through NTU #3, finishing an accurate assist from captain Serena Tiong on the left with a stinging slapshot, beating SIM goalie Priscilla Tan at the far post.

Their second goal started from forward Lai Soak Kuan’s cheeky slalom past two SIM defenders as she found NTU #3 with a diagonal through ball, who then planted it past SIM’s keeper to bring the score 2-1 up in favour of NTU.

Fans were brought to the edge of their seats as SIM mounted a frantic assault on the NTU goal, as SIM #51 finally penetrated their opponents’ defense with an equaliser at the eighth minute after some good work down the right by her teammates.

There was no let-up in the exciting end-to-end action, with NTU’s Soak Kuan finding her captain Serena Tiong free on the right with an excellent cross-court pass, who gladly placed the score to 3-2 with a well-placed dragshot.

More goals soon followed in the last period, as SIM equalised 3-3, this time through #6’s effort from their right flank, with both sides seeking to one-up each other right down to the wire.

NTU’s Cheryl Leong, who was given a more advanced role in the game, soon found herself free in the centre after a quick break and took only one touch to finish off another excellent NTU powerplay as they went up 4-3.

With less than 3 minutes to go, SIM returned fire, this time through Angela Danielle Model, who managed to spin past her opponent’s defence, levelling the score at 4-4.

As the clock wound down to its final seconds, both goalies had to produce good saves to keep their teams in the game after some intense attack from both sides in search of the winning goal.

Unfortunately, luck was not on NTU’s side as they conceded the golden goal seconds into extra-time through SIM’s #51, ending their hopes of a title defence despite an outstanding game.

“It was an exciting game throughout, at times abit too much for my heart. I dont think we started very well, we were quite nervous, and we got lucky on a few occasions,” said SIM coach, Kelvin Koh, who represented Singapore during the 2010 Asia Pacific Floorball Championship in February.

“Opponents-wise, they played their usual hard game, they had a good all-rounded team, and so it was quite difficult for us but we tried very hard, and luck was on our side as well,” he added.

Looking forward to the Finals, he remarked, “For every game, we want to win. I hope we do win and we’ll see how it goes from there.”

“I believe we fought hard, we went into the game with the determination to win and in the end we came out tops,” commented SIM goalie Priscilla Tan.

“It was pretty satisfying, and I’m proud of the girls. I think we gave a tough fight, as we went all they way and we really deserve it,” said SIM captain Rury Narita, on how she felt about defeating the title holders.

“Of course! We are definitely going all out to win it!,” said the petite Psychology student, on her team’s chances of lifting this year’s title.