A ‘versatile’ squad of 13 have been selected to represent Great Britain at the U19 Women’s European Water Polo Championships later this month.
They’ll be heading to the Croatian capital of Zagreb from 24-31 August for the week-long event at the Mladost pool.
The team contains five members of the U17 squad that finished 13th at the European Championships 12 months ago – while four of them have also been part of the senior British squad.
Great Britain have been drawn as one of five teams in Group D where they’ll open the competition with a match against Germany on Saturday 24 August.
On the same day they’ll also face Bulgaria before matches against Malta on the Sunday and Turkiye on Tuesday to round out the group.
If Isobel Howe’s side can place in the top two in their group, they then have a chance to move onto the latter stages of the competition whilst finishing third or below will put them in the 13-16 place play-offs.
Ahead of the competition, the group have just completed a two-week training camp in Greece where they took on several international and top club sides to help them fine tune their preparation for the event.
That included facing the Greece U19 side that finished third at the European Championships two years ago as well as taking on Israel, USA and Ethnikos.
Head coach Howe said: “This team is made up of a versatile and talented group of players.
“Their hard work and dedication towards this competition over the last year, especially over the past six weeks, heading to Greece and centralising in Manchester has been massive and we are so excited to go to the Europeans and showcase this.
“The opportunity to play internationally for Great Britain is one we never take for granted.”
Great Britain’s Group stage matches (UK time)
Saturday 24 August
- Great Britain v Germany, 10am
- Great Britain v Bulgaria, 9:30pm
Sunday 25 August
- Great Britain v Malta, 9:30pm
Tuesday 27 August
- Great Britain v Turkiye, 9:30pm
*Second phase fixtures will begin on 28 August based on the team’s final group position
Great Britain squad for the Women’s European U19 Water Polo Championships
- Harriet Dickens (c), City of Manchester
- Amélie Cornell (v/c), City of Liverpool
- Lucy Blenkinship, City of Manchester
- Lucy Bullock, San Diego State University
- Zara Christie, Dunfermline WPC
- Philippa Danielson, Otter
- Sophie Leveridge, Hucknall
- Juliet Lyons, City of Sheffield
- Amélie Perkins, Cheltenham/City of Coventry
- Hannah Pyper, City of Liverpool
- Isobelle Robb, City of Manchester
- Elizabeth (Lily) Ross, Cheltenham
- Zianna Wright, Monaco
Team staff
- Isobel Howe – head coach
- Jade Smith – assistant coach
- Michael Patterson – assistant coach
- Victoria Dickens - team manager
Euro Aquatics TV will be live streaming the event, whilst a live results page will be available on Microplus closer to the event.