The Black Sticks women arrive in Whangarei today for two games against South Korea - boosted by their 4-1 win in their first clash of a five-match series.
NZ coach Mark Hager was pleased with his team's performance on Saturday at Lloyd Elsmore Park in Auckland in their first appearance of
the lengthy Malaysia Airlines Summer Series.
"It was great to have a win to start the series. The combinations weren't always quite there, we need to continue to work on structures and value our possession more in the front third," Hager said.
The first goal for New Zealand came in the 30th minute after some handy stick work from Gemma Flynn led to Samantha Harrison taking advantage of a loose ball in the circle to score.
It was only two minutes after Harrison's goal, that the Black Sticks took their second penalty corner of the match with Clarissa Eshuis capitalising with a direct strike.
In the second half, it was player Jong Eun Kim who scored the first goal for the Koreans in the 53rd minute, but shortly after Cathryn Finlayson extended the Black Sticks lead when she took the ball into the circle and scored with an exceptional shot on the run.
The last goal of the match was due to nice team work by Katie Glynn and Gemma Flynn, with Krystal Forgesson getting the final touch for NZ's fourth goal.
The Black Sticks Women play Korea tomorrow night at ITM Rosvall Stadium at 5.30. This is followed by the Black Sticks Men playing Belgium at 7.30pm.
