After winning their first four home games, the Stirling University Water Polo men’s team hosted Robert Gordan University men’s team at home on the 8th of November 2023 for their fifth game. They had played RGU away earlier in the season coming away with a strong win. The team struggled for numbers at the beginning of the year but have since strengthened their squad, which has shown in the recent results.
The first quarter started off strong with the Stirling team scoring seven goals, and conceding three. The strongest quarter was the third where they scored eight and conceded one.
On how the team played the game, men’s captain Gregor Turner said “We started off fine however, we were defensively lacking. Once we started to become more organised and aware of how to deal with RGU’s threats, we began pulling away.”
The game ended with a great final score of 28-8 to the Stirling boys.
This is now the fifth win of the season with the team undefeated in Scottish Tier 1. Turner added “Overall, we got the result we wanted. Our start to the season has been very good, and we are looking to hopefully keep it going as long as we can.”
The Player of the Match went to Rory Robertson. He was effective at being an offensive threat and being able to use his height to his advantage defensively, making things difficult for the opposing team. Lewis Miller scored an outstanding amount of 12 goals which cannot go unnoticed.
The men’s team are travelling up to Dundee on Wednesday 15th November to try and continue their undefeated season.
The Women’s Team Continue Their Fight For Tier 1 Champions
The women’s travelled up to Dundee for their third game of the season. Having suffered a tough loss against Glasgow in their first game, they came back with a strong win of 33-8 against Aberdeen. Wanting to continue winning with the game against Dundee, the girls came out determined.
“We started the game off strong, but Dundee matched our strengths and the first half ended with a one goal difference.” Women’s captain Sophia Riemer told BRIG “We made some adjustments and came back to sweep the second half.”
The team has been working on communicating more inside the pool and the hard work could be seen during the match. The persistence and determination from the whole team shone through to the second half, with a final score of 27-10 to the Stirling ladies.
After their win, the girls still had time to have some and show their support for their Movember campaign.
Image credit: Siiri Maxwell
The Player of the Match was Mairi Napier, “Everyone played well, and some players even got their first ever goal! But Player of the Match goes to Mairi Napier for her work in goals. Mairi is not trained to be a goalie but only let through two goals in the second half of the game. She made smart passes and used her training as a field player to read the game wisely.”
“We have some difficult games coming up but if we continue to be adaptable then we will hopefully continue our winning streak.”
The women’s team play their hardest game of the season on Monday 13 November against Strathclyde at home. The game will be competitive and tough with the home side looking to retain their title of Tier 1 champions.
Featured image: University of Stirling Water polo Club
