It has not been an easy season for coach Vicki Gribble and the Hikurangi premier women's team which has struggled with injury all year.
But come Saturday, the team who placed fourth after round robin matches will be giving it everything to try to upset frontrunners Whangarei Old Girls in their
semifinal at ITM Rosvall Stadium.
Hikurangi shunted Kamo High School into fifth last weekend to make the semis.
"It has been a hard season," Gribble said. "It was one niggle after another to the girls but we hung in there."
Two key players have been plagued by injuries all season: former Black Stick Toni Wright has suffered from recurring hamstring and calf issues, while Marika Currie has had chronic Achilles pain.
Gribble hopes the players will make the August 29 final.
Old Girls are the favourites having lost only one match - to Maungakaramea - this season.
Hikurangi will have to dig deep to shut down Old Girls' talent-laden midfield with players such as Rana Vette and Laura Douglas.
Vette said her troops would prefer to go into finals as underdogs. "It is often harder being the favourites as there's heaps more pressure," she said.
Old Girls have lost Jacinda McLeod, who stayed in the US after the Junior World Cup to take up a scholarship in Boston, Amy Baker and Jackie Armstrong.
The game starts at 5.10pm on Saturday, August 29, while the semifinal between Maungakaramea, who placed second, and Whangarei Girls' High School, who finished third, starts at 1.30pm this Saturday at the hockey stadium.
In the Northern Premier Men's competition, Maungakaramea, unbeaten during the round robin matches, will take on second-placed Springfield at 6.40pm at the hockey stadium, while Bream Bay who were fourth, play Mangapai in a sudden death contest at 8.10pm on Saturday night.
