On Wednesday 29th March our school hockey team travelled to Lisnagarvey Hockey Club to compete in the Northern Ireland Finals. This would be an all day affair with the best teams from across the country competeing. Our girls decided to pace themselves not wanting to peak too early. They drew their first game against Mossley and went on to lose the next two games against Stranmillis & St Brigids. This now meant we needed to win our reamaing two groups games in order to qualify for the cup, this was not helped by the fact that the remaining games were to be played against the group leaders. Our girls were growing into the tournament and love a challenge so they put the earlier losses behind them and stepped up their game to beat Seagoe 2-1. Confidence was now growing and the girls played a great game against Hollywood in their final group game coming out 4-0 victors and securing a place in the cup draw. The cup matches began after lunch and the draw had not been kind to us, we had to face Harmony Hill and cup favourites Methody. Our girls confidence was high and the belief was there that we could beat anyone. We started strong dispatching Harmony Hill 2-0, this now meant that we only needed a draw against Methody in order to progress. The girls played the game of the tournament, Anna White nearly scored in the first 10 seconds and then found the back of the goal after sustained pressure. Methody managed to equalise but our girls continued to pin them back and the game finished 1-1, we had qualified for the semi-final. The girls were to face Armstrong Primary and both teams were evenly matched, the game finished 0-0 and went to golden goal extra time. After 5 minutes neither team had got a breakthrough and the match was to be settled by penalty runs. Ellie Whan, our goal keeper, was fantastic, repelling each player that stepped up to face her but into the third round of sudden death something had to give, Armstrong scored and we missed. Armstrong went onto the final. The girls were heart broken but should hold their heads high, they played fantastic hockey and were a credit to the school, we are all so proud of them!
Team:
Anna White (Captain)
Charlotte Bradfield (Vice Captain)
Mya Gray
Danniella Crookshanks
Zara Trimble
Ellie Whan
Rebekah Baker
Keziah McCullough
Katy Bradshaw
Maia Crawford
