North West emerged from the chaos of Wednesday’s wild weather to storm their way into the Combined High Schools girls water polo carnival semi-finals.
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The home side will take to the water at 8.30am on Thursday morning against Sydney North, who secured top spot with a 7-3 win over Sydney East in the final game of what was a challenging day for carnival organisers.
“It was chaos,” carnival convener Casey Kelly said.
“Every time there was lightning we had to be out of pool for half an hour.”
They had stop games three times on account of lightening, and just got out of the pool for the last game before the lightening started again.
In between that the players had to combat heavy rain and strong winds, but somehow still managed to play some good water polo.
North West’s first goal heading into the carnival was to make the top four, and they got off to the perfect start with two wins on day one.
Day two saw them go down in their first two games before beating North Coast 10-3 to claim the Neighbours Cup and keep their finals hopes alive.
Semi-final opponents Sydney North proved too good for them in their first game on Wednesday running out 11-2 victors but the locals rallied to account for Sydney West 5-1 and Riverina 10-3 and lock in fourth spot.
“They played some good water polo,” Kelly said.
“Obviously they have improved from last year where they finished fifth. It’s good to see them getting in the top four.”
Sydney East and Hunter will contest in the second semi-final at 9.20am.
They met in the first round of games on Wednesday with Sydney East getting up 6-2.
DAY THREE RESULTS: Sydney North 11 d North West 2, Riverina 8 d Sydney South West 2, North Coast 3 drew with South Coast 3, Sydney East 6 d Hunter 2, North West 5 d Sydney West 1, Sydney North 10 d Riverina 0, Hunter 5 d South Coast 2 (match abandoned due to weather), North West 10 d Riverina 3, North Coast 3 d Sydney South West 1, Sydney West 3 d South Coast 1, Sydney North 7 d Sydney East 3.
DAY FOUR DRAW: 8.30am (SF 1) – Sydney North v North West, 9.20am (SF 2) – Sydney East v Hunter, 10.10am – North Coast v Sydney South West, 10.45am – Sydney East v South Coast, 11.20am – Riverina v North Coast, 12.05pm – Play-off for third/fourth, 1pm – FINAL
