Durban Girls’ College makes hockey history
Defending champions, St Mary’s DSG, held on tightly to their title, making it a third win in the Grand Finals of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge.
DURBAN Girls College has become the only team to make an appearance, and feature in the medal games in the history of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge. The local girls earned themselves their sixth medal, with another silver to add to their cabinet, after they came second in hockey challenge played at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof, this weekend.
College took a while to get into their stride, with a bit of uncertainty getting into the semi-finals. In their first game, they had a comfortable win against Amanzimtoti High School, with the score being 3-0 in favour of College. For the third year in a row, College met their nemesis King Edward High School, who have earned themselves the nickname of ‘Giant Slayers’, KEHS again managed to keep College to a nil-nil scorecard. In their third game, they drew with the inform newcomers, St John’s DSG who matched their play from the start and not allowing College any space to get on top of them. They scored a handful against the team from Grantleigh in their final pool game.
With the two draws on their scorecard, College were on edge in the final game on Saturday. KEHS met St John’s, if KEHS managed to draw with goals or even win against SJS, then College, for the first time, would be out of the semi-finals. The Maritzburg team stayed strong against the ‘Giant Slayers’, winning the game 2-0, which meant that College finished second on the log, by 1 point ahead of KEHS. In the first semi-final, they took on St Anne’s DSG. Both teams worked extremely hard on the turf, in an evenly matched game. With the game finishing, both teams were level with 1 goal each. The game then progressing to a penalty shootout to decide who would progress to the gold silver game. College kept a level head and won the shootout 2-1, advancing to the gold silver game, where they met defending champs, St Mary’s DSG.
For the second year in a row, College and Saints took each other on, with the defending champs having the legs to take the win, and the title of the seventh SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge. College racked up their third bronze in their seventh appearance, adding to their three consecutive gold medals, and a fourth in the history of the tournament.
