Hockey: Wanganui women's fortunes revive

Hockey PHOTO/FILE

Despite being undermanned and outgunned, the Wanganui representative women's hockey team had a much better middle portion of their National Senior Tournament in North Harbour by extending one of the top sides on Wednesday, then earning a dramatic comeback victory yesterday.

After tough 3-0 losses in their opening games to Counties Manukau and Auckland, the makeshift Wanganui side were humbled 8-0 by North Harbour on Tuesday afternoon.

Player Michelle Lowe said the side were down to 14 players after two of their six Taranaki imports pulled out last Friday.

As the average age of the players is in their 30s compared to the other 16-person teams in their 20s, Wanganui had run out of legs by the time they faced North Harbour, who were fresh, Lowe said.

The home team scored five second half goals. However, Wanganui rebounded well in their Wednesday morning game to hold the undefeated Canterbury to 2-1.

Down 2-0 at the break after goals in the fifth and 29th minutes, Wanganui scored the only points of the second half with a field goal from Haley Mallinder shortly after the resumption.

Lowe said it was top effort as Canterbury had been racking up big scores against teams like Auckland and Counties Manukau.

"They probably had one or two [rested] but we played really, really well against them."

That result left Wanganui at the bottom of Pool A, so they met Pool B's third-placed New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) team yesterday morning and shocked the servicewomen with three penalty corner goals in the space of five minutes to snatch a dramatic 3-2 win.

After conceding 17th and 60th minute goals to trail 2-0 after an hour, Wanganui benched their goalie to bring on an extra player and were instantly rewarded with Cathie Bunler connecting in the shooting circle.

They switched to having a goalie and immediately turned the ball over to get back on attack, with Bunler getting her double in the space of two minutes.

Just a further three minutes later and NZDF were trapped in their box again, with Mallinder making no mistake to give Wanganui something to show for their week's efforts.

The win means they will face Counties Manukau again this morning in the playoff for 7th/8th.