Glory and disappointment on busy cup final day

Wednesday afternoon was a busy one for sport, with four of our women’s teams in cup finals.

The Women’s football first team was in action, playing their cup final against York university. They capped off an unbelievable season in style, smashing the Yorkshire side 7-0 to secure the league and cup double.

“We’re feeling very elated… and hungover”, Simone Wan said of the mood of the club after what has been a phenomenal season. “There aren’t any words to describe how good [the season] was. It’s just been perfect.”

The club have steamrollered their way through the league and cup, suffering only one defeat in the process.  The success, Wan says, has been down to effort. “A lot of hard work and dedication has been put into the club. Every single club members has trained hard and played every game well. A lot of thanks to our coach as well, who has been great.”

On the cup run itself, Wan singled out the difficult away trip to Bangor in the semi final as a performance to remember. “It was difficult. We had to play away, and they had a crowd of spectators supporting them,” she said. Yet UoM marched to victory with only one player on the bench. “There were only twelve of us, we had no subs. No coach either. And we won it. It was brilliant.”

Wan was perhaps a little restrained in her praise of the performance in the final itself considering the 7-0 score line. “Even when we were five nil up, we never gave up and carried our playing our game. Everyone gave it their all for the full ninety minutes. That was the difference between the two teams really”.

Being on the end of a 7-0 drubbing, you could be forgiven for expecting tempers to flare within the York ranks. Wan was quick to single out their sportsmanship, however. “Fair play to them. They came and shook hands at the end of the game, and said the better team won. They were really nice about it”.

It’s been a truly outstanding season for the Women’s football team. After being asked to single out someone for individual praise, Wan refused – “No, I think everyone has give it their all. There isn’t one player I could say. Everyone deserves it”.

The women’s netball fifth team have also had a brilliant debut season storming to the league and cup double, beating Durham 32-27 in the final.

Fifth team captain Hannah Huntington was quick to praise the team for the performance in the final. “It was our best game of the season so far. Everyone was excited. It was amazing really.”

The newly-formed team were forced to start at the bottom of the netball pyramid, which has proved to be perhaps a little too easy for the girls in purple, as they have remained undefeated all season during their relentless march to the title.

“Some games weren’t that testing for us”, Huntington acknowledged, “but there were other teams that were in a similar position to us in the league too, so playing those teams was important.”

However, she made clear that the challenge of stepping up a level remains an exciting prospect. “I can’t wait for next season. We’re looking forward to moving up and playing more competitive games… and maybe winning the cup again”.

Indeed, the cup final itself appeared the most closely-fought contest of the season, with Manchester requiring a fourth-quarter turnaround to beat Durham by only five points. “It was neck and neck… we’d pull ahead, then they’d pull ahead. It was a really tight game. We just about beat them in the end though.”

Huntington was also quick to heap praise on the new members of the team. “It’s definitely been an all-round team performance throughout the season”, she said, “but I’d definitely single out the freshers. Our team has had quite a lot, and they’ve all stepped up and played really, really well.”

Also in action were the Women’s table tennis first team, and the Women’s volleyball.  The table tennis team lost a hard fought final to Newcastle 3-2, and the volleyball team were unfortunately outplayed by Warwick 0-3.