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Water polo gold for Surrey/Delta boys at nationals in Calgary, bronze for girls

Fraser Valley club’s U15 boys team went undefeated over the weekend, winning all six games
Tom Zillich
Tom Zillich
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Fraser Valley Water Polo Club’s U15 Boys team with national-championship banner at Calgary’s Repsol Sports Centre on Dec. 6. (Submitted photo)

Several Surrey/Delta water polo players helped two teams medal at nationals on Dec. 6.

At a Water Polo Canada-sanctioned tournament at Calgary’s Repsol Sports Centre, the Fraser Valley Water Polo Club’s U15 Boys team won a national championship, and the club’s U15 Girls squad took third place.

The boys team includes Surrey/Delta athletes Austin Hexter, Ryder Coughlin, Adam Rashed, Heath Martin Barnes and Matthew Royer, while the girls team includes local players Sara Burns, Cierra Furneaux, Sophia Howie, Ava Finley, Hana Khan, Jamie Luo, Isabella Mady, Kriya Vohra and Vonzelle Venter.

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The boys team went undefeated over the weekend, winning all six games, and finished the tournament with a +90 goal differential. Their closest game was the 13-7 victory over Calgary in the gold-medal game.

“The 12-5 win over Montreal in the semi-final was the most physical game, but the speed and team play of the Fraser Valley club was too much for the Quebec club that is traditionally one of the best in the nation, year after year,” notes a news release from Fraser Valley Water Polo Club.

The girls team “did a great job of rebounding from their 12-10 loss in the semi-final to Saskatchewan to beat Montreal in the bronze-medal game. The girls finished the tournament with a 6-1 record and outscored their opponents by 43 goals in the process.”

Due to the pandemic, the event in Calgary saw the first national water polo action in close to two years.

“Both the boys and girls teams have been training for the unknown during for the past 24 months,” says a rep with the Fraser Valley club. “The training that coach Michel Roy, current national team coach, Georgiy Belyaev and Terril Ashton have given the athletes has clearly paid off. The Fraser Valley Water Polo Club is now preparing for U17 national league games in January against teams from across Western Canada.”

Fraser Valley Water Polo (FVWP) is a high-performance club for the sport, according to a post on fraservalleywaterpolo.com. “We offer developmental and high performance water polo programs for boys and girls ages 7 through 19 years old, and residing in the following 11 B.C. Lower Mainland towns/cities: Abbotsford, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Langley, Mission, New Westminster, North Delta, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, White Rock.”


tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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