Wairarapa College make last eight

Wendy Hull has celebrated her selection in the Wellington senior women's national league hockey side by spearheading Wairarapa College into the quarter-finals of the Federation Cup secondary schoolgirls tournament being played in Napier this week.
Hull, who can play in the halves or the forward line, is one of two Wairarapa players in the Wellington team, the other being Dalefield forward Ana Playle. On standby is a second Wairarapa College student in Sophie Wickens.
The Wellington side are, in fact, the defending national league champions and are coached by local identity Lance Hare who is also coach of the Wairarapa College team..
Wellington will kick off their national league campaign at North Harbour on September 16 with a match against a Canterbury combination which will include former Wairarapa player and New Zealand age group representative Elizabeth Perry. They will then play Auckland the following day and a week later they will also play two matches in two days, only this time hundreds of kilometres apart. On the Saturday they will meet Central in Levin and then travel to Dunedin that night to play Southern on the Sunday.
Hare is confident what is a mainly young Wellington side will give a strong account of themselves although he is loathe to predict they will live up to their number one seeding.
"It is something of a rebuilding year for us, so I guess it is questionable whether we can repeat what happened last season," he said. "But we should be very competitive all the same, no doubt about that."
Hare has been delighted with the form shown by Hull and Wickens at the Napier tourney where Wairarapa College qualified second in their pool after beating Rangitoto 2-1 and St Hildas 3-0 and losing to Westlake 1-2.
Remarkably that loss to Westlake represented their first defeat in two seasons and Hare is hopeful of it being a blessing in disguise as they continue their challenge for a second successive Federation Cup title.
"When you keep on winning over such a long period it's easy to get a little bit complacent and let bad habits creep into your game," he said. "We've now had a wake up call and I'm sure everyone is keen to get on back on track."
Hare was expecting Wairarapa College to receive stern opposition from Kamo High in the quarter-finals,but he was confident his team was capable of producing the goods and moving through to the semis in what is the top secondary schoolgirls hockey event in the country.
"It's all about playing to our potential, do that and we should be OK," he said.