_______Soton Ladies 1sts 1 – 3 Baths ladies 1sts ______________

Sunday 7^th December saw Bath and their facepaint return to Soton for a repeat UPolo/BUCS match. The girls were psyched up and ready to go after watching the Boy’s play before us, despite Bath’s new intimidation tactic of synchronised pre-match warm up in the foyer being employed in full force.

But we were not intimidated. We were not afraid. We were ready for them. Our pile of student IDs lay gleaming on the table far before their captain asked us for them, and we were not going to be cowed by them this time.

An exceptional swim by Katie O (the first of many through the game), won us the ball and the control of the first precious few seconds of the match. Synchronised waving your legs about on dry land proved no match for the Soton girls intense pool warm up and team spirit, and within minutes we had found the back of the net to bring the score to 1-0. Some superb defending and magnetic saves by Liane meant that we were able to hold on to this slim lead until the first break, winning us the first quarter.

Bath were, by now, worried. Last match proved to be very close, and this one was going to be no different. They started to employ more and more aggressive tactics, but this had no effect on the unflinching Soton ladies, and their anger gained them only major fouls (8 in the last 3 quarters to our 1). However, their 11 players matched against our 9 slowly began to wear us out; the second quarter ending 1-1 to them, and finally the third ending 3-1.

A heroic final push in the last 7 minutes gave us a goalless quarter; a moral victory and a proof of what we can achieve, given a little more fitness. The game ended 3-1 to Bath.

Goals;

1. Amy

Majors;

1. Sofia

Man of the match;

Sophie