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Lions roar in men's Elimination Finals

Sydney (May 21).— The Tigers roared as the men’s National Water Polo League finals series started at Sydney University’s Peter Montgomery Pool tonight.
Firstly No 5 Victorian Tigers ditched triple champions Sydney University Lions 10-9 and then Sydney’s Balmain Tigers, ranked sixth, nearly upset reigning champions and current No 3 Fremantle Mariners from Perth before losing 12-11. If Balmain had won it would have meant four straight games in which the lower-ranked teams won following the women’s encounters earlier in the day where there were two boilovers. The Victorian Tigers beat the home team after not being headed for the entire match.
Californian Andrew Schoneberger struck gold with three goals in an outstanding effort for the Tigers as they went from 2-1 at quarter time and 5-4 at halftime to 8-6 at the end of three periods.
Schoneberger found himself in the unaccustomed position of centre forward where he gained one of his goals with a muscle effort.
Australian international Luke Gavin took his tally of goals in the NWPL to 302 when he scored twice for the Tigers.
Balmain shook the champion Fremantle team, which is gunning for an 11th consecutive grand-final appearance, shooting away to a 7-3 break by halftime.
However, Fremantle blasted in four goals in just over two minutes to level the game at 8-all and went 10-9 ahead at the final break.
Balmain levelled at 5:01 in the fourth through a Gavin Woods penalty goal but it wasn’t until 1:25 from the end that Fremantle captain Peter Tresise, playing his last campaign, scored the winner.
The composure of the Fremantle team was evident in the second half as combinations connected despite the close attention of the Balmain team and the extraordinary abilities of Woods, who scored a goal in each quarter.
The second matches of the best-of-three series will be played tomorrow morning while third and deciding matches, if required, will be played in the evening.
The winners go through to the semifinals against either Sydney’s Wests waterpolo Magpies or KFC Queensland Breakers on Wednesday and Thursday.

Results:
MAY 21
Men:
Elimination Final A1: Victorian Tigers 10 (A Schoneberger 3, L Gavin 2, R Moody, A Feltham, S Boyd, C Gronow, S Lewis) Sydney University Lions 9 (A Visch 3, T Franklin, G Richardson 2, R Maitland, L Hollis). Victorian Tigers lead series 1-0.
Elimination final B1: Fremantle Mariners 12 (P Tresise, M Ainsworth 3, T Seress, T Neesham 2, T Cleland, A Richardson) Balmain Tigers 11 (G Woods 4, N Falzon, C Dyson, T Delany 2, A Laws). Fremantle leads series 1-0.
Women:
Elimination Final A1: KFC Queensland Breakers 15 (B Knox 5, S Mills 3, N McCarthy, A Hetzel, K Miller 2, S Horgan) Balmain Tigers 10 (T Woods 4, L Simms, A Turnbull 2, N Dyson, N Saville). KFC leads series 1-0.
Elimination Final B1: Cronulla Sharks 17 (B Appel 4, J Santoromito, N Zagame, K Gruber 3, H Lincoln-Smith, J Liessmann, E Douglass, C Kerr) Brisbane Barracudas 15 (K Gynther 5, S Smith 4, J Moran, M Rippon 3). Cronulla leads series 1-0.

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KFC Breakers' Amy Hetzel crobri9817

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