"We're looking forward to playing them [China] again so it's a game that will be loaded with emotion. So, I hope we can go above that to try to play the way we know we can and maybe turn the result this time," says the 27-year-old leftback from Omagh whose tourney is over.
Hockey is a top female code in her country with 35,000 of them honing their stick work in schools and clubs.
"We're a pretty close-knit group who have been playing together for a very long time. Ireland's a pretty small country so we know each other quite well and play in similar clubs too," she says.
Add to that Ireland's work ethics and you start getting the picture of a steely resolve for the next nine days here.
McCay is a product of her secondary school where a teacher, a former international, didn't allow the girls to play any other sport.
"So I didn't have a choice in the matter and grew to love it as I came up through the ranks," she says with a grin, revealing she went backwards with age after starting as a midfielder.
"I got a bit slower and got a little less energetic around the pitch over the years so I've moved into the backs."
She has been in the equation of three Olympic qualifiers with Ireland but come away empty-handed every time like her compatriots.
"We've all tried our best, some of us a few times more times than the others so it's a tough thing to swallow but it just comes with the game, you know.
"I suppose you wouldn't play the game without that risk."
She echoes the sentiments of her teammates that Ireland are on the cusp of throwing the Olympics monkey off their backs under the tutelage of "a great coach in Graham Shaw" and their collective experience.
"We have the belief so we just need to get the result."
It is hotter here compared to what they play in at home because "to be fair, it's almost like winter throughout the year in Ireland".
"Your winter days here will be equivalent to our summer ones in Ireland but that's why you play to build experience.
"If we ever qualify for Tokyo [2020] it won't be 5 degrees and chilly, so we'll have to man up and we'll have to be able to get through these sorts of things."
McCay says the women, with captain Megan Frazer at the helm, have a lot of belief in their ability to be able to foot it with the elite Olympic qualifiers such as Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan and India.
"We'll give them a good run for their money because we have some incredibly talented girls as a team. We aren't just one or two good individuals."
They intend to bring a mixture of attack and defence during the HB Cup, mindful China have a tendency to sit deep on defence to play a game of patience with counter attacks to score at the other end.
McCay says New Zealand is beautiful and its affable people have lent to a memorable experience for the touring party.
