{"id":85332,"date":"2025-10-20T10:44:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=85332"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:44:37","slug":"st-stithians-crowned-champions-after-thrilling-final-against-st-annes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=85332","title":{"rendered":"St Stithians crowned champions after thrilling final against St Anne&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-85333\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Saints-2510-G-1200-1-400x266.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" \/>The <strong>St Stithians Girls&#8217; Water Polo Invitational<\/strong> concluded in dramatic fashion, with the hosts, <strong>St Stithians College<\/strong>, edging out <strong>St Anne&#8217;s Diocesan College<\/strong> 9\u20138 in a nail-biting final.<\/p>\n<p>The title game carried an emotional edge, as <em><strong>Saints&#8217; <\/strong><\/em>coach <strong>Megan Sileno<\/strong>, who was in charge at St Anne&#8217;s until the end of last year, faced her former team in a matchup that delivered dollops of intensity in a showdown between unbeaten sides.<\/p>\n<p>St Stithians swept through Pool D with emphatic wins over <strong>Kingswood College<\/strong> (9\u20135),<strong> Rhenish Girls High<\/strong> (21\u20130), and<strong> Kingsmead College<\/strong> (17\u20131), before overcoming <strong>Durban Girls&#8217; College (DGC)<\/strong> 10\u20136 in the pool decider.<\/p>\n<p>In the knockout rounds, Saints was pushed to the limit by a familiar foe, Reddam House Bedfordview, but they pulled off a tight 6-5 win. Then, in the semi-finals, they showed tactical discipline in an 6-3 win over the defending champs,<b> Roedean<\/b>, to earn their place in the title decider.<\/p>\n<p>St Anne&#8217;s put together a similarly impressive run to the final. Drawn in Pool B, arguably the toughest of them all, they topped their group with wins over <strong>Collegiate Girls&#8217; High<\/strong> (11\u20132), <strong>Reddam House Constantia<\/strong> (7\u20135), <strong>St Peter&#8217;s College<\/strong> (12\u20135), and <strong>Reddam House Bedfordview<\/strong> (11\u20134).<\/p>\n<p>In a tense quarterfinal, they edged out their KZN rivals, DGC, 6\u20135 before defeating Herschel Girls High 7\u20134 in a fiercely contested semifinal.<\/p>\n<p>The final lived up to every expectation, delivering a thrilling contest between two skilful and resilient teams who refused to back down. St Stithians drew early momentum from a packed home crowd, but St Anne&#8217;s responded with composure and precision as the match ebbed and flowed, with the sides exchanging goals throughout.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, it was Saints&#8217; superior conversion rate and defensive discipline in the closing minutes that proved decisive, as they held off a late St Anne&#8217;s surge to seal a 9\u20138 victory and their sixth St Stithians Invitational crown.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waterpolo Final - St Anne&amp;apos;s vs St Stithians Girls - Saints Senior Waterpolo Festival - 19 Oct 2025\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W0b781RMESk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The closing day also saw several standout performances in the classification matches. Herschel finished third after a dominant 8\u20134 win over Roedean, while <strong>Reddam House Constantia<\/strong> held off <strong>DGC<\/strong> 8\u20136 in another thriller.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Clarendon High School for Girls<\/strong> overcame <strong>DSG Makhanda<\/strong> 9\u20136, and<strong> St Mary&#8217;s Waverley<\/strong> claimed a 5\u20133 win over <strong>Pearson High<\/strong>. Reddam Bedfordview defeated <strong>Kingswood<\/strong> 6\u20134, <strong>Beaulieu College<\/strong> topped <strong>St Dominic&#8217;s<\/strong> 4\u20132, and <strong>Kingsmead<\/strong> earned a narrow 5\u20134 victory over <strong>Rhenish<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kingsmead 5-4 Rhenish (19\/20)<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>Crawford Lonehill 5-3 Woodridge (17\/18)<br \/>\nBeaulieu College 4-2 St Dominic&#8217;s (15\/16)<br \/>\nSt Peter&#8217;s College 9-7 Collegiate (13\/14)<br \/>\nClarendon 9-6 DSG (11\/12)<br \/>\nPearson High 3-5 St Mary&#8217;s (9\/10)<br \/>\nReddam Bedfordview 6-4 Kingswood (7\/8)<br \/>\nReddam House Constantia 8-6 DGC (5\/6)<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>Roedean School 4-8 Herschel (3\/4)<br \/>\nSt Stithians College 9-8 St Anne&#8217;s (1\/2)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St Stithians Girls&#8217; Water Polo Invitational concluded in dramatic fashion, with the hosts, St Stithians College, edging out St Anne&#8217;s Diocesan College 9\u20138 in a nail-biting final. The title game carried an emotional edge, as Saints&#8217; coach Megan Sileno, who was in charge at St Anne&#8217;s until the end of last year, faced her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":85333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85332","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\/85332","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}