Three Northland players have won selection into the national women's hockey squad preparing for next year's Beijing Olympic Games.
The players - Alana Millington, Laura Douglas and Charlotte Harrison - were all contacted late this week and told individually about their selection into the 20-strong team after trials in Auckland earlier
this month.
The Black Sticks coach Kevin Towns and fellow selectors Paul Derham, Chris Leslie and Sandy Bennett have yet to release the full squad and an announcement is not expected until next week, according to Hockey New Zealand.
While 17-year-old Harrison is already a 16-test veteran and Douglas was named in the national squad last year, Millington is clearly Northland's bolter.
Millington's mother Angeline Waetford, who coached the trio in last year's National Hockey League, said the call from Towns had delighted the family.
"Alana has been in the New Zealand mix for years now in age-group teams, but we certainly didn't see the Black Sticks coming this soon,"' Waetford said.
"She's over the moon as you can imagine, as we all are."
The only disappointment for the Northland players was that fellow regional representative Stacey Michelsen failed to make the squad despite seemingly making the shortlist. The youngest of the players, Michelsen will bide her time in the New Zealand Development Squad.
The opportunity to play for New Zealand at the 2008 Olympics, while still a long way off, will be looming large in the three players' minds this weekend.
New Zealand just has to beat the best of the Pacific Island teams in the September Oceania qualifying tournament to go to the Games along with Australia as the tournament's two qualifiers.
The Black Sticks first training camp won't be until the beginning of May, when they get together in Christchurch to prepare for a four-test series against the Australian national side.
