Black Sticks women chase more history
The Black Sticks women made history once this year, now they want to do it again.
An 18-strong squad for this month’s World Cup in England was named on Tuesday, featuring 17 of the players who won Commonwealth Games gold for the first time in April.
Retired midfielder Pippa Hayward is the only player missing from that group, replaced by Lulu Tuilotolava.
The squad is led by Stacey Michelsen, and with more than 2000 caps between them, they are set on winning New Zealand’s first medal at the event.
‘‘Our team talks about firsts,’’ said Mark Hager, who is off to his third World Cup as coach, seeking improvement on the seventh-place finish of 2010 and the fifth place of 2014.
‘‘We want to be the first to achieve something past players and past teams haven’t done, so this is an opportunity for us to achieve a medal at a World Cup, which no New Zealand women’s team has ever done.
‘‘If we can tick that off, that’s another part of our legacy we can leave behind, and the next team can hopefully better it. That’s something we’ve really strived for over the years.’’
The Black Sticks have been drawn with Australia – who they beat in the Commonwealth Games final – Belgium, and Japan in pool D for the 16-team event in London, which begins for them on July 23.
Three teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage. The winners will go straight to the quarterfinals, while the second and thirdplaced teams will face a further round of elimination matches.
Hager said it had been tough for the world No 4 Black Sticks, as they switched their focus to the World Cup after winning on the Gold Coast.
The Black Sticks leave New Zealand on Sunday for Germany, where they will play the hosts, Argentina, and the Netherlands in a warm-up tournament next week.