Three girls’ teams headed off to participate in tournament week, covering the sports of netball, football and hockey. With a very busy and challenging week ahead the girls were greeted by a wet and and chilly opening day.
The Sancta Maria Premier Netball team had an excellent first day at UNISS, managing to come out as the winners in both of their games. The score in the first game against Bay of Islands College was 40-20 and in the second game against Marist the score was a very close 30-29.
Day 1 at the Kathy Seaward Girls Football Tournament in Western Springs:
The Sancta Maria College First XI Girls got off to a good start early on, all of them made it to the van in time so no one was left to attend school instead!
Otumoetai was the first opposition and playing a team which just missed out on qualifying for Nationals was always going to be a tough one. The girls were caught on the back foot early in the first half which resulted in some very well executed goals from the Tauranga side.
Sancta Maria weren’t to be left without having a say though, fighting back strongly in the second half with chances on goal. Unfortunately, injuries and fatigue took their toll and Otumoetai went away with a comfortable 9-0 win.
To their credit the Sancta girls stayed positive throughout the match and were complimented by the opposition for their support of each other.
The second game saw the team against North Shore Kristen School who had also just come off a loss. With the wind in our favour Sancta Maria started strongly and dominated most of the first half. Unfortunately, a lapse in concentration allowed for a long shot from Kristen’s star striker which slipped through the grasp of keeper Orla Edwards.
With the wind against them in the second half, Sancta Maria had a tough battle to try and find an equaliser; however, a play from the left wing saw the ball deflect off a Kristen defender, skip past striker Kristy Attenberger’s outstretched leg and onto the goal scoring boots of right wing Caroline Barbafiera who calmly slotted it into the net.
With time running out for Sancta Maria to grab their first win of the tournament, half a dozen chances were well defended by the opposition who almost saw their first win after a shot soared towards the top of Sancta’s goal, but was expertly parried over the crossbar by Edwards. The girls will have to wait until tomorrow to find their first win against Mt Roskill in the morning, and hopefully another against Western Springs in the afternoon.
In very wet and trying conditions at Pakuranga the girls 1st XI hockey team went down narrowly to Ormiston College, 0-1.
