Tasman teams up and down
The Tasman men’s and women’s hockey teams opened with a win and a loss from their first two outings at the national senior tournament in Wellington on Sunday and Monday.
Tasman found the pace of their second match, against Waikato, hard to adjust to and they conceded a well-constructed field goal in the first quarter.
In the second period Tasman spent long periods on defence but held out the northern side’s attacks until the third quarter when a second goal to Waikato sparked the mainlanders into action.
A penalty corner finish by Pat O’Connor-Lea from Nelson was quickly followed by a good finish from Buller’s Alex Patterson to level the scores. However Waikato were not finished and regained the lead prior to the end of the quarter. Although Tasman rallied in the fourth and final quarter to even the scores at 3-3 with a wellconstructed penalty corner variation finished by O’Connor-Lea, the match went to a shot-out which was won 3-1 by the Waikato side.
The Tasman women went down 3-2 to a strong Wairarapa side on Monday, also unable to build on their opening day victory. Tasman trailed 3-0 at halftime against Wairarapa and although Alice Coll and Stace Lloyd, from a penalty corner, scored in the second spell they were unable to bridge the gap.
Tasman kept the pressure on until the end, earning several penalty corners, but Wairarapa were tenacious in defence. In the final 10 minutes Tasman chucked everything at them, even taking the keeper off with five to go to provide an extra attacker, but they came up short.
On Sunday, the Tasman men scored a 4-1 win over Northland. The men from the far north scored first before a field goal from Nelson’s Scott Barnett and a penalty corner strike from O’Connor-Lea gave the Mainlanders the lead at halftime.
Paterson and Sam Solly from Nelson scored in the second half to clinch a morale-boosting victory.
The Tasman women did even better in their opener, downing Tauranga 7-0. Marlborough player Yvonne Boyd scored twice before halftime, Aimee Kersten adding another to give Tasman a 3-0 lead at the break. Coll scored a second half hat-trick, Kersten bagging her second to make a strong statement.
Manager Denise Lloyd said the game was good chance to gel, the side enjoying some good moments, connecting well and scoring some great team goals.
Yesterday, Tasman women played Canterbury, the men were up against NZDF.