Harrison stars in 100th game
In her 100th game for the Black Sticks, it was only fitting that Sam Harrison would star in the team’s 2-1 win over Malaysia in Taranaki yesterday.
With their 5-2 win on Saturday wrapping up the five-match series win, the New Zealand side played like a side with no pressure on them in the final contest.
The Black Sticks should have gone a goal up after six minutes when Harrison fired a pass to the back post but Phoebe Steele failed to tap it into the open goal.
However, Harrison opened the scoring two minutes later when she knocked home a deflected save from a penalty corner.
After a strong first 15 minutes, the Black Sticks reverted to playing as individuals rather than as a team to open the second period, with a number of opportunities lost from players spending too much time on the ball in the attacking quarter.
Any momentum the Black Sticks had going into the period was seemingly squashed as the play seemed to be with Malaysia for the first eight minutes of the quarter.
However, the Black Sticks got back into gear with five minutes to go in the half and netted another one through Pippa Norman, who got the last touch on a well-worked set piece from another penalty corner.
With a halftime lead of 2-0, the New Zealand side looked to stay on the front foot coming out of the half and tried to extend the margin.
While this trend looked to continue, Malaysia earned a penalty corner on a counter attack, and Nuraini Abdul Rashid slotted it home.
With Malaysia unable to score again, the Black Sticks won the series 4-1.