18th St Mary’s hockey festival ends on high note

Over the past 18 years, the St Mary’s Investec Hockey Festival has consistently kept us on the edge of our seats and no different can be said about this year’s festival.

The event kicked off on April 6 with 32 teams in play from all around South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe and Namibia. The finals were played on April 9.

Meisieskool Oranje, St Mary’s, Waverley 1st X1, St Anne’s Diocesan College and Hoërskool Waterkloof qualified through rounds one and two to compete in the semi-finals on April 9.

The festival showpiece was the first semi-final, a pulsating affair between last year’s finalists St Mary’s and Oranje. The match was sent into five minutes extra time after the match finished 1-1.

A degree of caution and tired legs saw both teams take a more defensive approach to extra time and, with no further goals being scored, this fixture between Oranje and St Mary’s went to a penalty shoot-out for the second year in a row. Each team scored one from their three initial penalties and Oranje triumphed in the second round of the subsequent sudden death shoot-out.

The second semi-final between St Anne’s and Hoërskool Waterkloof was a more sedate affair. After a 1-all result, this match was also sent into extra time and finally a penalty shoot-out. The massively talented team from St Anne’s all scored their penalties to beat a determined Waterkloof 3-2 on penalties, sending St Anne’s into their first-ever St Mary’s Investec Hockey Festival final.

St Anne’s, under the guidance of former national men’s player and coach Carlos Pereira, were certainly the surprise package of the festival and full-value finalists.

The final was a competitive affair after St Anne’s opened the scoring through a tap-in goal from Sophie McDonald after an exhilarating run down the right by Daniella Rhodes. But relentless running and pressure from the Oranje team saw them run out 3-1 winners on the night and St Mary’s Investec Festival champions for the fourthh consecutive year. Stand-out players at the festival for Oranje were Mia Barnard, Simone Gouws and Lizanne Jacobs, but the entire squad, coached by Morne Odendaal, will again set the standard for schoolgirl hockey in South Africa in 2017.

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