A win and a loss for the Mark Cromie Holden Northland women's hockey team probably didn't reflect how well the team played in the opening two rounds of the Ford National Hockey League in Whangarei at the weekend.
In their opening match on Saturday Northland women couldn't muzzle the scoring prowess of Auckland Black Stick Katie Glynn, who scored a hat-trick against them in the closing minutes of their match in their 3-4 defeat.
But the team reversed the result with a 2-0 win over North Harbour yesterday.
Coach Bevan Gibbs said he was proud of the way the team competed against an Auckland side stacked with international players.
"We were well in with a chance of taking the points with five minutes to go but we couldn't quite get the result we wanted," Gibbs said.
"They were unlucky not to come away with a point from the game, so to get the win [yesterday] in front of our home crowd was awesome.
Northland took an early lead and defended well enough to keep Auckland out until just before halftime. The game swung back and forth with both sides taking the lead in the second spell until Auckland scored the decisive goal.
Despite conceding four goals, Gibbs praised the team's defence and said if they had capitalised on a few more scoring chances they might have caused the upset of the day.
Canterbury and Capital were also first-round winners and North Harbour beat Midlands 3-1 in the other close match.
In yesterday's game against North Harbour Charlotte Harrison put Northland 1-0 up at half time and a goal from import player Naomi Evans five minutes from full time took the points for Northland.
"The girls played really well and deserved the win," Gibbs said.
Southern, Capital and Midlands were the men's winners on Saturday while Marsden Cove Northland men's team had no answer to current champions and favourites Auckland, who demolished them 8-0 in Saturday's opening encounter.
The team improved yesterday but still went down 4-1 to North Harbour.
Coach Dave Adams said his team had a disappointing first half to be down 3-0, but improved dramatically in the second half with Belgian import Gauthier Boccard scoring after five minutes.
Adams said Northland then had a long period of sustained pressure, forcing two penalty corners and two North Harbour players getting sin-binned.
"We were working hard to get that second goal and had them under a lot of pressure, but then the water guns came on [to water the pitch] unexpectedly and the game had to be stopped for a while, which gave them a chance to regroup and recharge their batteries," Adams said.
"Then they got their fourth goal with 10 minutes to go and that pretty much killed the game off."
This weekend's NHL games are at North Harbour.