Hockey: Old Girls in seventh heaven with win

Maungakaramea's Alicia Jurisich in action during the 10-goal match against Old Girls. Photo/Michael Cunningham

Doubles for Jess Macalister, Laura Douglas and Samantha Polovinikoff saw Old Girls record a perfect five wins from five to top the Whangarei Premier Women's competition after the first round.

Their 7-3 win over Maungakaramea may have been emphatic but the team's players wanted to finish the round with a clean sheet after scoring 29 goals in their first four games without conceding a goal.

Old Girls were well on their way to achieving that after leading 4-0 at half-time on Saturday, but Maungakaramea rallied in the second spell to score three of their own to destroy Old Girls' ambition.

"They (Maungakaramea) changed their systems at half-time to counter what we were doing and they stopped our game plan and drew the second half 3-3," Old Girls captain Tarannah Vette said.

"While that wasn't great, we'll focus on the positives like some of the fantastic goals we scored and then get to work on changing our systems around more effectively when we are challenged, like we were in the second half," she said.

There were plenty of positives to take from the match, particularly with the performance of the younger players like the Macalister sisters Jess and Chelsea on attack and the emergence of a future star of the game in Polovinikoff.

The Kerikeri 16-year-old was superb in the match, hustling for turnovers, displaying delightful distribution and a sharp scoring ability. She will benefit from playing alongside the experience of players like Douglas and Vette and under the coaching of Alan Lints.

Maungakaramea came alive in the second half, with Natalie Newson and Alicia Jurisich in particular finding more space on attack to fashion scoring chances with Luana Telfer, Kellie Heappey and Julie Taylor scoring their goals.

In the other premier women's matches, Hikurangi defeated Mangapai 3-0 in an interrupted match after a heavy downpour forced the players from the turf. In the other match Springfield came back from a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 against Whangarei Girls High School with goals to Simone Myburgh and Jodie Nichol.

Springfield beat Bream Bay 4-2 on Friday evening in the men's premier competition, while Maungakaramea beat Mangapai 3-1 on Saturday. Maungakaramea scored in the opening minute through John Wallace with James Mortimer doubling their advantage by half-time. Sam Webb added another in the second spell with Chris Stanton countering for Mangapai.