Olivia Merry: Remedying a slow start

Olivia Merry is the Black Sticks stand-in captain.

Welcome to my first column for the 2017 Vantage Hawke's Festival of Hockey.

I was handed the captains armband for the third round match against USA after our previous captain Stacey Michelson was forced to return to Auckland for treatment on an injury.

I have been a part of the Vantage Black Sticks leadership group for a while now and have enjoyed the challenge of imparting knowledge to and supporting the younger players in the squad.

It is very special to me that I have been given the captaincy as it is something that I have always aspired to. I am very grateful that coach, Mark Hager tapped me on the shoulder and gave me the chance to lead this group of girls.

To the tournament now and we are pleased to have moved up the points table after what turned out to be a slow start.

It was imperative that we put in a good performance against the USA on Monday to ensure we were on track to make the final. We had met them twice in tests in the last month and their game was very similar to what we have come to expect.

They play a very strong style of hockey but the 3 - 1 score showed that we had the measure of them this time around.

Then on Tuesday we met Japan in a match that we really wanted to win after they beat us in the opening game of the festival. The conditions were pretty awful with the rain beating down for the whole match.

We dominated the Japanese side for long periods of time and were able to string our passes together which put us in good attacking positions.

They relied on strong defence and counter attack hockey. Most teams find it difficult to break their defence and it is important that we stayed patient knowing that the goal would eventually come if we stuck to our patterns.

In Tuesday's match, Kirsten Pearce scored a goal from a penalty corner five minutes into the second quarter and that proved to be the only goal of the match. We have now moved up the points table into second place with 2 wins and a draw from our four matches and trail leaders Australia by just a point.

We meet Australia this evening and our final round robin match is against the USA on Saturday then it's onto the finals matches on Sunday. The points table is very tight for the top three places but we are right in the hunt to defend the title we won last year.

Let's hope we have seen the last of the rain in Hawke's Bay and the weather is nice for this evenings match against Australia.

It was amazing how many people braved the rain to watch us play Japan on Tuesday evening.

The Vantage Black Sticks look forward to seeing you at the park this evening.