Playing on their home ground, NUS began their journey to regain their lost crown with a convincing win over an inexperienced SIM team. NUS played a more standard game with a 6-nil defence formation and basic waves with minor variations on the offensive. In the first-half, SIM only managed to score their opening goal after NUS took a commanding six-point lead. NUS took advantage of their overseas training and vast competition experience to widen their lead to 16-2 at the end of 30 minutes.
The second half saw some improvement in SIM, but the margin was just too large to narrow down. Three of their players were given 2-minute suspensions for fouls committed whereas the powerhouse team played the match, clean; without any suspensions. Besides that, their coaches did not opt for a time-out so as to maintain a strict discipline within the team.
Despite the struggle, SIM still managed to launch 17 shots-on-target at each half. Over the goalkeeping statistics, Joyce Ng (NUS) scored an outrageous Goal Saving Percentage (GSP) of 89% while her substitute for the second period, Wang Ying Ting (NUS), only managed 69%.
In the other game, NTU portrayed an all-rounded offensive formation, with a good mix of fast breaks, wing shots, pivot plays and 9-metre shots. SMU, on the other hand, seem to be lacking of offensive ideas in light of NTU’s quick-shifting defence. The current SUniG defending champions kept providing waves after waves of attack at SMU’s shaky defence and ended the half leading by a score of 12-3. NTU eventually defeated SMU by 25 to 7 at the end of 60th minutes.
Regina Ng (NTU) scored a high GSP of 83% with 35 tremendous saves. Not just a guardian to her posts, she constantly changed the tempo and launched accurate long passes to assist her teammates to score quick points. Looking on the offensive side, her teammate, Anna Soo (NTU), contributed to about a third of the goals scored.
Final scores:
NUS – SIM : 37-7
NTU – SMU : 25-7
