Vantage Black Sticks to defend Hawke’s Bay Cup

Vantage Black Sticks to defend Hawke’s Bay Cup at Festival of Hockey

The Vantage Black Sticks women will defend their title at the Vantage Hawke’s Bay Festival of Hockey in Hastings, New Zealand courtesy of a 2 – 1 win over the USA in their final pool match.

The New Zealand team was in second place coming into the match but needed to win to be sure of a final’s berth after Japan beat Australia in the earlier match.

The USA made the early running and were rewarded in just the third minute when Caitlin van Sickle completed a well worked penalty corner.

The rest of the quarter and the early part of the second quarter belonged to USA as the Black Sticks struggled to string passes together and had to defend strongly to keep the US at bay.

With ten minutes to go until the halftime break the Black Sticks started to make more of their possession and in the 23rd minute a cross from Olivia Merry found Kirsten Pearce unmarked in front of gaol and she made no mistake with the shot.

The Black Sticks continued to attack strongly and forced three penalty corners in quick succession. The first two were cleared by the USA but the third, in the 28th minute, resulted in a clean shot for Brooke Neal which found the net.

The Black Sticks were unlucky not to score their third goal when Erin Goad fired over the top from close range just before half time.

The second half saw the USA attack for extended periods of time but were unable to score. The closest they came was in the 40th minute when a sizzling shot hit the Black Sticks post and rebounded away.

The 2 -1 win to the Vantage Black Sticks see’s them top the pool in the double round robin competition with 11 points, Japan and Australia finish on 9 and the USA, 4. Japan finishes second as they won three matches to Australia’s two.

The Hawke’s Bay Cup final tomorrow afternoon (5.15pm NZ time) will be a repeat of the 2016 final, where the Black Sticks beat Japan 2 – 1.

Tomorrow’s third/fourth playoff will feature Australia and the USA

Half time score: Vantage Black Sticks 2 USA 1

Final score: Vantage Black Sticks 2 (Kirsten Pearce, Brooke Neal) USA 1 (Caitlin van Sickle)

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