Teamwork was the recipe for success for Wairarapa at the national under-15 girls hockey tournament at North Harbour last week.
Six wins in seven games, 32 goals for and six against and a third placing overall was the result of a deliberate policy which placed emphasis on unity rather than individual brilliance.
"We focused hard on working as a team and the girls responded really well to that challenge," coach Phil Hall said. "Being able to constantly rotate players and know there would be no drop in standards was a huge plus."
Illustrating the depth of talent in the Wairarapa squad was that eight of their players got their names on the scoreboard through the course of the tourney. Leading the way was Petra Hall with seven goals, followed by Brigette Mossman with six, Sarah Marfell five and Emma Smith and Hannah Lang with four.
Wairarapa got off to a flying start with a 12-0 thumping of Counties Manukau and then a 6-2 win over Bay of Plenty on the opening day of pool play, results which had them in a positive frame of mind going into their next match against Canterbury, defending champions and title winners nine times in the past 17 years.
And in what would have been a serious contender for any game of the tournament award Wairarapa maintained their unbeaten record with a thrilling 2-1 win, an effort labelled by coach Hall as their best of the tourney.
The last of the pool matches for Wairarapa was against Northland - six times winners of this tourney - and a 3-1 win meant they were top qualifiers for the quarter-finals where they made short work of Tauranga 6-0.
That win took Wairarapa into a semifinal against arch-rivals Wellington, who had beaten them narrowly in a pre-tourney encounter. There was nothing much in it with Wellington winning 1-0 after Wairarapa had failed to take advantage of several prime scoring chances, including seven penalty corners.
"It was one of those games where we did everything but put the ball in the back of the net," Hall said. "And you have to give credit to the Wellington defence, they were outstanding."
Wellington went on to beat Auckland 1-0 in the final while Wairarapa beat Waikato in the playoff for third and fourth 3-1 after trailing 1-0 at halftime.
Emma Smith was named most valuable player for the week on and off the field while listed as best performers in each of the games through to the semifinals were Brigette Mossman (v Counties-Manukau), Latesha Smith (v Bay of Plenty), Kelsey Linton (v Canterbury), Emma Smith (v Northland), Harriet Gibson (v Tauranga) and Hannah Lang (v Wellington).