Black Sticks seal game two against Malaysia

The Black Sticks Women have taken out the second of five tests against Malaysia 2-0 at the TET MultiSports Centre in Stratford.

New Zealand followed up Mondays opening 3-0 victory with another clean sheet thanks to goals from Michaela Curtis and Catherine Tinning.

Alia Jaques, Megan Hull, Deanna Ritchie and Jess Anderson all made their Black Sticks debut.

Black Sticks assistant coach Sean Dancer said it was pleasing to record another win against an improved Malaysia side.

"Tonight was another good win for us, we dominated the first half and created a lot of good scoring opportunities so we need to work on putting more of those into the goal," he said.

"Malaysia played well, particularly in the second half but to our girls credit we fought hard and pressed well which is what led to the second goal. We finished well with lots of energy.

"With a rest day tomorrow we will look to freshen up a little bit and focus on building on our consistency for game three."

It took just three minutes for the Kiwis to open the scoring with Curtis putting the finishing touch on a great assist from Natasha FitzSimons.

Malaysia tightened up on defence following the goal with the Black Sticks taking their one goal advantage into halftime.

New Zealand lifted once more coming out of the sheds and doubled the lead in the 43rd minute courtesy of some fantastic work by Catherine Tinning who made a tackle in the circle before slipping the ball past the keepers pads.

Both sides have a rest day tomorrow ahead of game three at 6:30pm Thursday night, with tickets still available through www.hockeynz.co.nz

The Black Sticks Women vs Malaysia series is proudly supported by the Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET).

BLACK STICKS WOMEN 2: (Michaela Curtis, Catherine Tinning)

MALAYSIA 0

Halftime: Black Sticks 1-0





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