Under-18 hockey team exceed expectations

Growing self belief playing a big part in Wairarapa exceeding general expectations by placing sixth at the national under-18 women's hockey tournament played in Whangarei last week.
Coaches Nigel Goodin and Ana-May Playle always considered the side had the potential to at least reach the quarter-finals but getting the players to buy into that train of thought was no easy task.
However, that became less a problem as the pool games progressed with Wairarapa drawing 1-1 with Mid-South Canterbury in a match in which they had enough prime scoring chances to win comfortably and then beating Taranaki 3-1 and Thames Valley 3-0.
"We just got better and better in each pool game, the confidence levels grew and the performances levels grew with it," Playle said.
Their pool results saw Wairarapa through to a quarter-final encounter with highly-rated Auckland and they gave every bit as good as they received there. Auckland led 2-1 at halftime but Wairarapa levelled up at 2-2 before Auckland scored what was to be the winning goal. "It was really even, it could have gone either way," Playle said. "We created as many good scoring chances as they did. It was the sort of game where whoever lost was going to be unlucky."
That defeat left Wairarapa playing off between fifth and ninth and their opening match there was against Hawke's Bay, a side which had beaten them earlier in the season. It was played in atrocious conditions with the turf being flooded by persistent heavy rain but Wairarapa coped brilliantly to win 3-0.
Victory there had Wairarapa fronting up to Wellington in the playoff for fifth and sixth and while the scoreline of 5-2 to Wellington might suggest they were outclassed that was anything but the case.
It was 2-2 at halftime and it was only a brief period in the second spell where Wellington scored three quick goals, including a penalty stroke, which saw the match completely slip from Wairarapa's grasp.
Had a tournament team been selected several of the Wairarapa players would have been in the reckoning for it, foremost among them being Holly Gaskin, Megan Parker and Stephanie Sloan, all of whom impressed on a consistent basis.