{"id":58160,"date":"2024-09-27T21:04:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T19:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=58160"},"modified":"2024-09-27T21:04:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T19:04:33","slug":"clifton-water-polo-tournament-quarterfinalists-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=58160","title":{"rendered":"Clifton Water Polo Tournament quarterfinalists confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ross
Ross Rovelli has been a standout performer for a St John’s team that was, arguably, the most impressive side during the group stage of the Clifton Centenary Water Polo Tournament.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hilton College<\/strong>, SACS<\/strong>, Paul Roos<\/strong>, Affies<\/strong>, St John\u2019s<\/strong>, Clifton<\/strong>, Westville,<\/strong> and Kearsney<\/strong> punched their tickets to the quarterfinals of the Clifton Centenary Water Polo Tournament <\/strong>on Friday at the Clifton Aquatic Centre<\/strong> in Durban.<\/p>\n

Catch the action LIVE on SuperSport Schools<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The story of the day was Kearsney\u2019s qualification for a spot in the top eight.<\/p>\n

The Botha\u2019s Hill boys took a circuitous route, despite leading Pool B <\/strong>after day one. Kearsney played the first match of the event, and they got the tournament challenge off to a roaring start by walloping Michaelhouse<\/strong> 13-3. They followed that up with a victory over Affies and went to bed on Thursday in first place.<\/p>\n

However, their win over Affies had come in a penalty shootout, which meant they didn’t receive the three points that victories in regulation time bring. Instead, they picked up two points and Affies received one, which would prove to be important.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Kearsney’s qualification for the next stage was cast in doubt when Paul Roos edged them 8-7. They were pushed further down, into third place, when Affies thrashed Michaelhouse 10-3 in the last round of group matches. That sequence of events to Kearsney facing Durban High School (DHS)<\/strong>, who had two wins and a single loss under their belt, in a playoff match.<\/p>\n

\"There
There was little to separate the sides when Kearsney College and Paul Roos Gimnasium did battle. In the end, after 15 goals were scored, Paul Roos won by one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DHS finished second in Pool D<\/strong>, but Kearsney would have fancied their chances of taking down the Horseflies<\/strong>. After a competitive battle, Kearsney clinched a 10-8 victory, which made them the only third-placed team to win their playoff game against a second-placed side.<\/p>\n

Kearsney will go to battle against St John\u2019s in their quarterfinal tie, a school that was home to Kearsney coach Nicholas Rodda before he moved to the KZN school.<\/p>\n

The Gauteng side, who overwhelmed Maritzburg College<\/strong> and Selborne<\/strong> on day one, made it three in three when they brushed Westville aside, defeating the KZN boys 6-2 to complete a clean sweep that left them in the top spot in Pool C<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Alongside St John’s, Clifton and Hilton also produced dominant runs in Pools C and D respectively.<\/p>\n

The hosts, Clifton, made light work of the challenges from DHS and KES<\/strong> on day one. They put the cherry on the top, to the delight of the home crowd, with a 12-3 thrashing of Reddam <\/strong>on Friday in which they moved the ball well. Clifton will a stern test from Westville in their quarterfinal contest.<\/p>\n

The Griffin<\/strong> had a strong start, chalking up two wins in two matches on day one, but they fell to the log leaders, St John’s, in the final round of group games. In the playoffs, though, they punched their ticket to the quarterfinals with a 5-3 win over Northwood<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hilton topped Pool A, withstanding a furious Northwood challenge in their opener before scoring a convincing win over Grey College.\u00a0Their sternest test came when they met SACS on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

On day one, Jason Sileno’<\/strong>s charges came up trumps when they scored two late goals to record a hard-fought victory over Northwood. More of the same mettle was required when they took on SACS. There were no late goals this time around. Their encounter was decided by a penalty shootout, where Sileno’s charges held their nerve to claim a 9-8 victory.<\/p>\n

\"SACS'
SACS’ and SA Schools’ star Nicholas Fall threatens the Hilton College goal during an intense clash to decide first place in Pool A.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul Roos, who finished second in Pool B<\/strong>, stands between Hilton and a semifinal spot. It is a tie the KZN side will not be taking lightly. The Stellenbosch side has a proven pedigree. They were the runners-up in last year’s Clifton Water Polo Tournament and came into the tournament as one of the favourites to win the title.<\/p>\n

The Capetonians were in a tight group where they squeezed past Michaelhouse and narrowly lost to Affies on day one, before delivering an 8-7 victory over Kearsney to knock the local team from the top spot in the pool.<\/p>\n

Affies topped Pool B, scoring two wins and a penalty shootout loss. They face arguably the toughest of the second-place finishers, SACS, who defeated Selborne College in their playoff match.<\/p>\n

The battle-hardened Capetonians have shown their ability to score big and not concede a lot in their victories over Grey College and Northwood. They also showed their fighting spirit in their narrow loss to Hilton, coming back to level the contest at 7-7 after twice trailing by three goals.<\/p>\n

The quarterfinal matches begin at 09:30 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Results Group Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n

KES 5 \u20137 DHS
\nKearsney 7-8 Paul Roos
\nNorthwood 7-4 Grey College
\nClifton 12-3 Reddam Constantia
\nSelborne 18-3 Maritzburg
\nAffies 10-3 Michaelhouse
\nHilton (9 ) 7-7 (8) SACS
\nWestville 2-6 St John\u2019s<\/p>\n

Playoff Matches<\/strong><\/p>\n

SACS 5-4 Selborne
\nPaul Roos 9-3 Reddam
\nNorthwood 3-5 Westville
\nKearsney 10-8 DHS
\nSelborne 10-7 KES
\nReddam Constantia 11-1 Grey College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hilton College, SACS, Paul Roos, Affies, St John\u2019s, Clifton, Westville, and Kearsney punched their tickets to the quarterfinals of the Clifton Centenary Water Polo Tournament on Friday at the Clifton Aquatic Centre in Durban. Catch the action LIVE on SuperSport Schools The story of the day was Kearsney\u2019s qualification for a spot in the top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":58166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}