Marist Magic Senior Women’s Goalkeeper Jessica Milicich has recently signed a one year contract with Dutch club Het Ravijn. The club proves to be one of the Netherlands top clubs playing in the National Premier League. The women are five time national champions and have won the national cup 8 times. The team also performs quite well at a European level having earned several medals.

Jess is no stranger to international Water Polo having played in the New Zealand Senior Women’s team since 2016 debuting at the Olympic Qualifiers in Gouda. Since then she has competed in FINA Intercontinental World League Tournaments, FINA World Cup and FINA  World Championships. She has also captained the New Zealand Women since 2019 and is campaigning towards the Olympic Qualification tournament in January 2021.

The opportunity to play overseas has been a long time coming and she’s extremely excited to be playing in one of the strongest water polo competitions in the world. Her international career has shown her that the Netherlands typically have strong shooters with the likes of Maud Megens, Melissa Dongelmans, Simone van der Kraats and soon to be teammate Yasemin Smit,  so this will be a good challenge for her as she tries to continue to be the best goalie she can be campaigning towards Olympic Qualification in 2021.

Marist Magic Women’s Coach Lionel Randall speaks highly of our Goalie,  “Jess’ quality performances speak for themselves, she is a great team player and an asset to our Marist Senior Women’s team. Jess will come back as an even stronger player and her time spent in the Netherlands will see her grow both as an International Goalkeeper as well as in her leadership as she will be exposed to a different culture, different players and will no doubt take on some key learnings on how to bring out the best in both herself and her teammates. It has been an incredible privilege to coach a player of Jess’ magnitude. She is an amazing woman, incredibly humble and an awesome team centered player!”

Fred Oloapu, Marist Chairperson, highlights Jess’ contribution to our club stating, “The Marist Whanau are sad to lose Jess, but we are also excited that she has this opportunity through water polo to experience another culture and play at another level. Jess has been a mainstay for the Marist Senior Women over the past years taking on leadership of our young teams and also helping to develop younger goalies not only at Marist but at other clubs and schools. She will be missed but we wish her all the best in the Netherlands. Go hard Jess, enjoy, stay safe and please send us updates.”

Marist Water Polo would like to thank Jess for all of her support over the years as a player, coach and teammate. We are behind you 100% and can’t wait to follow your journey closely.