St Mary’s defend their hockey title
The girls won the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Tournament, making it a third win.
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 Tournament, which took place on their home turf this weekend.
The physically strong and strategically adept team, claimed the victory from Durban Girls’ College who have also previously claimed the top honours three times. In an evenly matched final,
St Mary’s continued to drive the ball home, with St Mary’s Kiana Cormack landing a decisive goal in the first half, but Durban Girls’ College were unable to break through the sturdy defense to equalise.
The semi-final between them and St Mary’s looked as if the newcomers would have a chance to knock St Mary’s out of the finals, as they scored a goal within the first eight minutes.
Also read: St Marys team net 2-1 victory
However, with the score at 2-1 in favour of the defending champs, St John’s managed to knock a solid shot in, only to be disappointed by a call for a “foot foul” that took place in the build-up to the shot, disallowing the second. For this feisty team, it was a big disappointment, and they were unable to claim back their energy after that, and St Mary’s won the game 3 -1 and the first berth in the finals.
The Durban Girls’ College and St Anne’s semi-final ended with the scores level at 1-1 and the deciding 8 second penalty shootout commencing, victory went the way of Durban Girls’ College with 2 successful penalties to St Anne’s 1.
“It was a fun and incredible experience,” said St Mary’s Captain, Tayla Putz after the win. “It was a tough tournament, and our draw with Fatima and St Anne’s, lost us the edge in the pool games on Saturday, but it was a reminder for us not to be complacent, bringing out the best in the team resulting in us coming away with the trophy today.”
Up next for this year’s champs is the Super 12 in the Oranje tournament.
“Hopefully we will be able to carry the momentum of this win through to the Super 12 in two weeks time,” said Tayla.
Varsity College, who have partnered with the tournament for two years, awarded two sports bursaries to captain of Amanzimtoti, Phiwokuhle Myeza, and captain of St Anne’s, Brady Wiseman.
Do you want to receive news alerts via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409.
You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Highway Mail WhatsApp number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts.
