In the only match on yesterday's catch-up day for the men, the Albany Alligators edged University A 3-2.
Both sides were coming off wins on Saturday and were desperate for the points.
Albany came into the match with fire in its eyes, sensing a chance to knock the favoured Whales over.
Whales field general and key defender Max Rasmusson is out after suffering an injury at the under-21 tournament and is a huge loss for the students.
Albany was definitely targeting the less experienced defenders and was able to score late in the first quarter through veteran striker Jason Dungey.
He and the other Albany strikers were finding gaps and space right up in the danger zone as the game fell into a very end-to-end pattern, neither side content to hold the ball at the back and build the play.
This led to several turnovers back to back and counterattack was the order of the day.
One of these turnovers led to a quick counter and Dungey added a second with a skilful reverse finish.
University was also creating plenty of chances but its finishing quality was letting it down as the ball went wide time and time again.
It did get one back right on the stroke of halftime with a penalty corner goal from Henry Will.
The third quarter was a bit more reserved, neither side able to build any real attack as patience was mostly thrown out the window.
As tends to happen late in these games, the aggression increased and some players were perhaps lucky to not be missing minutes.
Albany struck again in what proved to be the killing blow as a seemingly harmless baseline shot deflected off the keeper's legs and into the goal to once again put it up by two.
The Whales were able to get one back through a Tim Kerr slap hit, but a third eluded them and the Alligators took the points.
On Saturday, University A took the shield off Kings with a 3-1 win, Albany beat Southland 5-0 and Taieri was held to a 3-3 draw by an uncharacteristically fast-finishing University B, which then continued its resurgence and came out on top in the shootout.
Kings still holds top spot, while Uni is second.
Albany has skipped over Taieri into third and Southland holds fifth ahead of Uni B.
- Matthew West
