Water Polo: Defending champions NUS sweep NP aside to advance to final

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

National University of Singapore, Saturday, January 15, 2011 – Defending champions National University of Singapore (NUS) defeated last year’s runners-up Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) 15-6 in the second semi-final of the NUS-Waterpolo Challenge.

With the comprehensive victory, host NUS will look to defend their title against Masters, a team made up of senior players, who defeated Singapore Management University (SMU) 15-12 in the other semi-final.

Despite an early shot at goal from NP’s Rahul (NP #4), which was comfortably saved by Nigel Tay (NUS #1), it did not take long for NUS to stamp their dominance on the game with a 6-goal blitz in the first quarter.

NUS soon took the lead through Lim Shang Cong (NUS #6) with a powerful shot from the right. He claimed a hat trick of goals within the opening 10 minutes while Willis Lin (NUS #10), Marcus Goh (NUS #9) and Lin Diyan (NUS #11) added one goal apiece.

In contrast, NP could not come up with a response for NUS as their defense failed to keep up with the pace of the defending champions, who were punishing the younger players on the counter attack and ended the quarter 6-0.

Much of the same followed in the second quarter as Marcus broke away from the NP defense to extend NUS’ lead to 7-0. Lin Diyang (NUS #2) and Willis Lin (NUS #10) both chalked up a goal each in the quarter. Bryon Teo (NUS #8) scored another goal for NUS, making it 10 goals without reply for the hosts.

It was only during the final 14 seconds of the quarter that NP finally got on the score sheet through Fang Yan (NP #8) when he broke away from the NUS defense, but had to go into the half time break 1-10 down.

The goal seem to spark NP into action and they scored the first goal of the third quarter when Rahul (NP #4) launched an unstoppable shot past the NUS’ goalkeeper just 20 seconds into the game. However, NUS were soon back in the driving seat, as Shang Cong (NUS #6) got his fourth goal of the afternoon through a 6-on-5 opportunity.

NP were once again unable to pierce NUS’ watertight defense and it wasn’t long before the host added to their lead through Li Diyan (NUS #11) and Marcus Goh (NUS #9). The third quarter ended 13-2.

In fourth quarter, it was a different story. Despite facing a massive 12-point deficit, NP pushed their opponents to their limits and asked serious questions about their defense. Midway through the fourth, Rahul (NP #4) scored two quick-fire goals to trim NUS’ lead down to 13-4.

NUS responded in kind through Marcus (NUS #9) a minute after to make it 14-4, but the younger side managed to score a goal as quickly, with Tobias (NP #6) putting the ball at the back of the net.

Rahul added another with 2:46 remaining on the clock to further cut down the lead, but with time winding down, Li Ming (NUS #7) made sure there was no chance of a major upset as he sealed the game with a goal to make it 15-6.

“NP is a strong team,” said Kenneth Foo, NUS captain. “They have played together for quite some time and they have that team chemistry. They put up really good fight. We played better today.”

“After the six goals in the first quarter, we got a bit complacent and NP managed to capitalise on it. Our main problem is that our team is really young and they have different styles of playing as they were from different schools. The challenge is to integrate all these styles to from one NUS style.”

He also commented on playing Masters in the final, saying, “Masters have more experience and a lot of them are older than us. They have played water polo more years than us. We believe that fitness will be key to winning the game and hitting them on the counter attacks. We will be looking to keep the pace of the game up.”

“We can expect a lot of fierce competition and a great game of water polo.”