Vantage Black Sticks and Australia share the points

Media Release

Date: 6th April 2017

Vantage Black Sticks and Australia share the points at Festival of Hockey

Trans-Tasman rivals the Vantage Black Sticks and Australia played out a 1 all draw in their round five match at the Vantage Hawke’s Bay Festival of Hockey in Hastings, New Zealand.

There was just one point separating the teams on the points table ahead of this match with their previous clash in round two of the festival resulting in the same 1 all draw.

The first quarter was evenly fought with both teams creating a number of quality chances to score.

Australia broke the stalemate in the 28th minute when a penalty corner was taken by Gabi Nance and the shot by Madi Ratcliffe rattled the back of the Black Sticks goal.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with both teams pressing hard on attack but unable to create many clear cut shooting chances.

It took until the 51st minute before the parochial home crowd had a goal to cheer about. Black Sticks striker Samantha Harrison received the ball to the left of the Australia goal mouth and her shot flew high in the air and eventually over the keepers head into the goal.

At the end of five rounds Australia retains the points advantage with 9, the Vantage Black Sticks stay in second with 8, Japan are on 6 and the USA has 4.

In the final round robin matches on Saturday (NZ time), Australia meets Japan and the Vantage Black Sticks meet USA.

The top two teams after round robin play will compete for the Vantage Hawke’s Bay Cup on Sunday afternoon 9th April (NZ time)

Half time score: Australia 1 Vantage Black Sticks 0

Final score: Australia 1 (Madi Ratcliffe) Vantage Black Sticks 1 (Sam Harrison)

Matches from the Vantage Hawke’s Bay Festival of Hockey are live streamed on:

https://www.facebook.com/FestivalofHockey/

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