15^th February saw the Ladies 1^st team travelling to Surrey to play the second round of the BUCS tournament. Having already played Bath and with UCL dropped out of the tournament, we were only looking forward to a manageable two games.

The team started preparations early, honing its competitive spirit on the journey down with a game of hold-your-breath-through-the-tunnel, comfortably won by TJ. This put us in a fantastic frame of mind for our first game against Surrey, whom we had beaten easily last round.

(Fig1: Image showing artists impression of ‘it’ … the ladies first team when grouped as a singular noun)

Immediately upon getting into the pool, we could see how much Surrey had improved, however we had improved too, and our superior marking and defensive work was simply too much for them.

2 goals were quickly put away in the first quarter, 2 in the third and 4 in the fourth as the Southampton ladies warmed up and picked up the pace of the game. Special mention goes to our dick of the day, Sofia, who after sitting out for an entire quarter, proceeded to get in to the pool and start swimming the wrong way to attack our own goal. Upon realising she was swimming to threaten Liane, she stopped, picked the ball up, and GAVE IT to an opposition player who was goal hanging 3m from our goal, before turning and SWIMMING AWAY FROM HER. All credit to Liane, who managed to save the resulting shot.

It must also be mentioned for posterity, that Rosie was accused of making someone cry by kicking her in the throat. Anyone who knows Rosie, knows what an incredibly likely suggestion this is, given Rosie’s hugely aggressive and violent nature. Thankfully, after the entire team was told off for ‘bad sportsman-like behaviour’ by the opposition coach on poolside, it emerged that the girl who was crying, started it, and there was no more mention of the incident. I can’t imagine who would make someone cry. Can’t imagine at all. She probably deserved it.

The second match against Kings started after a 10 min break, and started fast. Their players were very quick in the water, and incredibly fast to break away from us to get one-on-ones with Liane. The first quarter saw us fall behind, and ended on 5-0. However, we regrouped in the break, and focused hard on our tactics. We knew they were fast, but we were fast as well. The quarters started ending in our favour, with each quarter seeing scores of 2-1 to Kings, then 1-2 to us, and 1-2 to us again in the final quarter (their only goal being scored in the literal last 2 seconds of the match). This truly shows the determination of the team; already tired after one match, and disheartened after a first quarter we were able to come back incredibly strongly and really give Kings a challenge for the match.

Some special mentions in this match go to;

-TJ for a beautiful back shot from pit (identical to the 2nds match on Friday, hopefully this becomes a signature move!)

-Katie, who would like to nominate herself for tit of the day, for some “fantastic” (ahem) shooting and passing, and managing to get herself nipple crippled halfway through the Kings match.

-Jo, who according to my friend from Kings, managed to slap her around the face instead of going for the ball.

A very well played set of matches, and the girls are now looking forward to their matches, home and away, later this week.

Player of the Match vs Surrey: Katie O

Player of the Match vs Kings: Liane

Dick of the Day: Sofia

Top Goal Scorers;

Amy 6

Sofia 3

Katie O 2

Beth 1

Alex 1

Major Queens;

Sofia 2

Beth 1

Alex 1