Black Sticks finish sixth at Champions Trophy

TheBlack Sticks Women have finished sixth at the Hockey Champions Trophy in London after being beaten 4-3 by hosts Great Britain.

Great Britain came out firing in front of a vocal home crowd and were fuelled by a hat-trick from Alex Danson.

The Black Sticks created more shots on goal and circle entries but struggled to capitalise against a scrambling defence.

Anita McLaren scored a first half field goal while Olivia Merry and Kelsey Smith converted from second half penalty corners.

Head coach Mark Hager said his side wasnt consistent enough through the tournament and conceded too many goals.

"Great Britain wanted it today and we didnt do well enough at stopping them," he said.

"Playing at home against Great Britain is always tough, and in the first half their energy was better than ours.

"We fought back in the second half and played some of our best hockey at the tournament but unfortunately couldnt score the goals we needed.

"Moving forward we know we need to be better for Rio and learn from some key lessons from this tournament."

Great Britain opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Alex Danson fired a good backhand shot through goalkeeper Sally Rutherfords legs.

The Black Sticks responded midway through the second quarter with Anita McLaren pouncing on a deflection and smashing into goal on her reverse stick.

Great Britain then put the foot down either side of halftime with goals from Lily Owsley and Danson to push their advantage to 3-1.

New Zealand clawed back to equalise once more thanks to goals from Olivia Merry in the 39th minute and Kelsey Smith in the 47th, who both slotted from penalty corners.

But Danson struck again eight minutes from fulltime, scoring her hat-trick and ultimately sealing the result for the hosts.

In other results Argentina edged the Netherlands 2-1 in the gold medal match while USA defeated Australia 1-0 in a shoot-out to take out the bronze medal.

BLACK STICKS 3: (Anita McLaren, Olivia Merry, Kelsey Smith)

GREAT BRITAIN 4: (Alex Danson 3, Lily Owsley)

Halftime: Great Britain 2-1



- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Hockey NZ