Hunter Relish Chinese Test
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday January 29, 2008
HUNTER Hurricanes women's water polo captain Ellie Goodwin believed the experience her team gained from playing China twice in the past two days outweighed the heavy losses they suffered in both games.
China, who are playing in Australia's national league in the build-up to the Beijing Olympic Games, won 15-5 on Sunday night and 16-4 yesterday in the double-header at Lambton.By full-time yesterday, the young Hurricanes side had played four national league games in five days after going down 10-6 and 9-7 to Brisbane on Thursday and Friday.Goodwin said the Hurricanes players had also been involved in the NSW Country Championships held over the long weekend that wrapped up with Central Newcastle beating Lake Macquarie 3-2 in the final yesterday.Goodwin said the China game began at 11am and she and many of her Hunter teammates were back in the pool for the country championships decider at 2pm."With the country championships as well, it's probably been more like 10 games in the last few days, so it's been a massive weekend for all of us," Goodwin said."I thought we dealt with everything quite well overall against China, even though the scorelines didn't reflect it."For a club team to play against a national team, it was a great opportunity and a privilege. They were tough opposition, highly skilled, and their fitness was a cut above ours, but we're a very young side, and it was a learning curve for us."That's what it's about for us. The condensed season is very intense, and on some road trips you're playing four games in four days, so it was a great experience and will put us in good stead for the bulk of the national league."Hunter's next game is against Cronulla at Gunnamatta Bay ocean baths on Saturday.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald