Women’s Australian Hockey League Round-up: Part 2
In the second instalment of the two-part series, we will briefly discuss the play-off games from fifth to eight positions in the Australian Hockey League (AHL) that concluded last week in Darwin. OAMPS Southern Suns captured the title of the league after
it edged past New South Wales (NSW) Arrows.
5th – 6th Places Play-off
In a quite one-sided contest, Canberra overwhelmed Victoria Vipers by a commanding four-goal margin, 4-0 and secured the fifth place in the AHL. It was a shocking show for Victorian Vipers where they were whitewashed by straight four notches. It is important
to note here that the Vipers secured the top position in the round games.
The opening 30 minutes of the match was a quite boring period in which no major effort was showed from the two sides. Though, the two teams carried out back-to-back attacks against each other, but failed to open the scoring. In the 33rd minute
of the match, Courtney McGowan made a lengthy run onto the field and scored opening goal of the day through a tap. The first half of play was concluded with Canberra hanging on to a single goal lead, 1-0.
The second half was quite fast and furious but only belonged to Canberra which obtained another three goals in the 35 minutes. Stacey Michelsen scored a goal in the 44th minute, while her team-mate added a couple of goals in the 49th
and 70th minutes, respectively, of the match to seal the convincing victory at 4-0.
7th – 8th Places Playoff
In another hardly-fought game, the Darwin Airport Resort NT Pearls edged past Tasmanian Van Demons by a single goal that was played for the 7th and 8th positions of the Australian Hockey League. It was quite hard-hitting game where
the two teams locked horns at 2-2 after the regular time period.
In the very early minutes, the Van Demons earned a short-corner. Elizabeth Duguid, the custodian of the NT Pearls made an outstanding dive to save the ball. In a counter-offence, NT Pearls earned a couple of penalty corners, but to no avail.
Kirsten Pearce of Van Demons scored first goal in the 15th minute of the game which was responded by a goal from Ashlee Pointer in the next minutes. With one minute left in the first half, Thisja Van Der Kruijs scored a goal and doubled the NT
Pearls tally.
With two minutes into the second half, Sofie McLeod levelled the score and forced the two teams to move into the extra-time period.
Both the teams failed to decide the game in the first half of the extra time. However, Van Der Kruijs scored another goal in the second half of the overtime and sealed the victory at 3-2 to secure 7th place in the league.
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