Water polo – triple champions

WATER POLO

TRIPLE CHAMPIONS!

While most of us were still settling into school life for 2019, the premier water polo team’s season was well and truly underway.

After a great 2018 season, the girls were raring to emulate that success and show the progress they had made in the off-season. Having started training in the summer holidays, the girls were well drilled going into the North Island Championships and took out the tournament, leaving pool play unbeaten and taking out the final against Rangitoto College 9-1. Special mention to Maddy Gault and Charlie Hooke, who were both individually recognised as Tournament Most Valuable Player and Tournament Best Goalkeeper respectively. College before finally reaching their end goal, the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships. The tournament was held in Auckland this year and we were lucky enough to play all our games at our home pool. With great home support, Dio was the highest scoring team in the tournament, with everyone contributing to that tally. The final also took place at the Diocesan Aquatic Centre against classic rival St Cuthbert’s College. The girls played an incredible team game and came out on top with a 15-5 win, an amazing result to cap off a brilliant season.

Team Dio scored an incredible 106 goals and only conceded 11 throughout the national tournament. It is the first time in history that a girls’ school has successfully defended all three titles on offer. The Senior A and Senior B teams showed the incredible depth and breadth of the Dio water polo programme, with players of all year groups competing very strongly at the senior level, especially the Senior A team who played extremely competitively in the top division, finishing in ninth place at the North Island Championships.

At Nationals, the team beat Baradene College, who subsequently finished in fourth position. (The Senior A team was not allowed to place higher than eight as it was a second school team). Morgan McDowall was Nationals’ Most Valuable Player and Charlie Hooke did the double, winning the Tournament Best Goalkeeper. With these performances, the Dio Senior water polo programme wrapped up another tremendous