Congratulations to North West Thunder who won gold at this weekend’s U14 girls Inter Regions tournament.
After 3 games on Saturday, the girls topped their group with wins over the West Midlands, South West and Scotland to set them up for a semi-final against London on Sunday morning.
The semi-final was a tight affair that finished in a 4-3 win for Thunder, with impressive defending and goalkeeping on show from both teams.
The girls met Ireland in the gold medal match and got off to a perfect start, racing into a 3-0 lead inside the opening 2 minutes. Ireland came back strongly to give the supporters in the stands a highly competitive and entertaining match, but Thunder held their nerve to come away with a 7-5 win and retain the title.
Jess Watson was named North West Thunder’s MVP and Izzy Taylor was awarded Top Goalkeeper at the tournament.
Head coach Alice Byrne said:
“I’m really proud of the girls’ achievements this weekend and their team spirit. They worked exceptionally hard to play the tactics we set out, especially in close games against strong sides in London and Ireland who pushed us all the way. A fantastic team performance over the whole tournament.
Congratulations to all the teams who made the tournament so exciting and who played some great water polo over the weekend. Huge thanks to all the volunteers who organised and ran this event and made it such a success, as none of this would be possible without you.
Thanks, must also go to Assistant Coach Lily Ireland and Team Managers Julian Taylor and Alicia Hackney for their invaluable support.”
