Aquas finish 3rd in Jellies tournament

Aquas travelled to Portsmouth to play in a mini tournament against the two Jellies U12 teams. With very little opportunity for much warm-up, and three of our players arriving straight from a school match, Aquas went into this tournament perhaps a little under-prepared. Starting off against Jellie Blues, the home side took charge straight away while Aquas were still in disarray. Too many high passes and poor spacing round the court saw us lose possession time and time again, and Jellies took away a comfortable 5-0 win. A similar performance followed against Jelly Pinks, although this was a slightly weaker side, which we were able to exploit to mount a few attacks, culminating in a fine goal from Bethany.

We then had a much longer break before our third game, against the Blues again, which was obviously beneficial to the team as they came out much more strongly, even leading for a time. There was still a bit too much running around with little purpose and too many players going for the same ball, however, and ultimately the more focused Blues managed to pull ahead again.

Heartened by their improved play, Aquas went out for their final game against Pinks determined to come away with one win at least. Tiredness forgotten, the players took an early lead thanks to two excellent goals from Sienna, which they managed to hold on to despite Pinks fighting back strongly - key interceptions from Zahra and Emilia saving the day more than once. With a final win, we were able to go out on a high!

All in all, a tougher fight than Aquas were perhaps expecting against opponents who were quite feisty but by no means out of our league. There were flashes of excellence from all our players, with plenty of great passes, interceptions, dodges and goals, but consistency was lacking and we struggled to really work together like a well-oiled machine. Still, a team cannot improve by winning all the time: working on the learning points to come out of today should send a tighter, more focused Aqua team forward into their next game.

Scores:
Game 1 v Jelly Blues: L 0-5
Game 2 v Jelly Pinks: L 1-4
Game 3 v Jelly Blues: L 2-5
Game 4 v Jelly Pinks: W 3-2

The team: Bethany, Emilia, Charlotte, Izzy, Erin, Zahra, Sienna, Emily and Amy