SA women stun US to reach quarterfinals

There was no talk of sticking to their processes or focusing on their own game, just sheer delight as South Africa’s women’s side pulled off a stunning 3-2 win over the US at the Wits Astro yesterday to make the Hockey World League quarterfinals.

It was a tremendous triumph, not only because they were up against a side ranked sixth in the world, but because they were under enormous pressure, needing nothing short of a win in order to reach the knockout round.

The signs were promising at the start as a switched-on team dominated the first quarter, but then found themselves 1-0 down to a breakaway goal by US captain Melissa Gonzalez. But South Africa scored a great equaliser just before half-time as Shelley Jones used her pace to chase down a long ball, finding Sulette Damons in the circle, who passed to Jade Mayne (right) to slot home.

But with the USA dominating the third quarter and going 2-1 up through a soft goal by Jill Witmer, things were looking bad.

And then Candice Manuel stepped up.

The Western Province star scored two goals in three minutes to secure a memorable win, the first set up by Bernie Coston chasing down an overhead and brilliantly taking the goalkeeper out of the game, the second courtesy of Nicolene Terblanche’s defence-splitting pass. Manuel’s finish on both occasions was topnotch.

“The challenge of knowing we must win really got the hearts firing and the energy was way up. This team seems to thrive on these moments, they showed great composure to come out with the win and there’s a lot of emotion now,” coach Sheldon Rostron said.

“When our backs are against the wall, to put up such a fighting performance feels incredible, especially after the devastation of losing to Chile,” Jones said. “I’ve been telling the other teams that we’ll see them there at the end, we just take the long way round!”

“These moments are what we live for, to have the BMT to capitalise on our chances,” Manuel said. “We gave our all, it’s why we spend hours training.”