The Midlands women's hockey team may have missed out competing for a top place but Tauranga players are relishing the opportunity to play at home.
The week-long Ford NHL tournaments enter the play-off phase at Tauranga Hockey Centre today and Midlands were denied a place in the top four after finishing level with Northland and Central in pool play. Each team had a win, a shootout win and a shootout loss. Midlands were determined the lowest-ranked with an inferior goal differential to Northland and the shootout loss to Central sealed their fate.
It means they will be in the bottom half of the competition for the second phase, which begins against Southern this afternoon. While disappointed with the loss, Tauranga Black Stick Rose Keddell said it was great to be playing at home.
"It was a bit hard to take, the girls played really well and we were a bit unlucky. You have to win your games and not rely on things like that to win tournaments," Keddell says.