A silver medal in third division of the NSW Under 15 Women’s Hockey Championships capped off another great representative hockey weekend for the Penrith area’s emerging group of talented youngsters last week.
Many of the young players were also members of the Nepean area team that won gold in the Third Division of the NSW Women’s Hockey Open Championships on the June long weekend.
Some 15 players, several officials and a large group of parents and friends made the long trip to Taree for the championships and were not disappointed.
The team dominated Sydney East 2 in their opening match but could not find a way through some tight defence and had to be content with a 0-0 draw. However, the players combined splendidly to thrash Metro South West 9-0 in cold, wet conditions on Friday night.
Saturday saw convincing wins over Sydney South 2-0 and Grafton 4-1 before moving on to the semi finals on Sunday morning.
Dubbo provided strong opposition but Nepean got on top in the closing stages to win their way into the final by a convincing 3-1 margin.
The final against New England was rugged encounter with Nepean dominating for most of the match. However, New England scored the lone goal just before half time – against the run of play – and then held on for a tenacious victory.
Team officials Corrina Buckley (coach) and Roy Cladingboel (manager) were delighted with the team’s overall performance, pointing out that it was Nepean’s most competitive junior tournament for many years. The effort was particularly praiseworthy given that four of the matches (including the finals) were played on grass – completely foreign conditions for the Nepean youngsters.
The team was drawn from Penrith and surrounding districts and was superbly led by Annie Buckley and Louise Cager. All players – Olivia Jackson, Hannah Cladingboel, Maya Holman, Molly Mullins, Sophie Garde, Mikayla Rushbrook, Catalina Lecaros, Maddy Kettlewell, Steffani Sroczynski, Brenna Crocker, Jorgia Gibbs, Tammin Danby and Mackenzie Stone – played strongly throughout the weekend.