On Saturday 23rd February, the Ladies’ and Men’s first teams travelled to Exeter to play our respective UPolo games versus the university teams.

The ladies team played the first match, and it proved to be a lot more challenging than our 15-1 win at home had led us to believe.

The team started out strong in the water; a very early first goal by Amy and some very strong defending left the score at 2-0 to Southampton and the girls feeling confident. Unfortunately, the game then started to go downhill; some questionable refereeing had both Amy and Vicky sent off for their first majors, which allowed Exeter to put one goal away on a man-up. The first quarter ended 3-1 to Southampton.

The second quarter started similarly, with a set of quick goals from Amy and Vicky. Coupled with more fantastic defending, the score was taken up to 5-1. Yet again though, an interesting choice by the referee meant that another major was awarded to Amy, which meant she had to stay out of defence in case she was wrapped. A fast goal off the man-up by Exeter brought the score to 2-5, and another two goals (including one by Katie Lightowler, which was definitely not her first goal for the university since she was top goal scorer at BUCS) ended the quarter on 7-2 to Southampton.

By the third quarter, the lack of subs mean the team started to tire, and lose control of the game. An impressive full pool press defence meant that only 2 goals were conceded, but the team was unfortunately unable to take advantage of a number of man-up situations due to players being double marked. The quarter ended with the score 7-4 to Soton.

The fourth quarter passed in a similar manner, although Soton only conceded one goal, bringing the end score to a close 7-5 to Southampton.

The girls played incredibly well through what was a very tough game, well done on an unbeaten record in UPolo this year so far! Congratulations go to the Men’s 1sts playing after us for winning their match too.

Scorers:
5 – Amy Ennion
1 – Vicky Gall
1 – Katie Lightowler