Collegiate fare well at preseason tournaments
WITH interest in the game growing and the desire by all coaches to have a good season, the hockey programme seems to start earlier every year.
It was no different for Collegiate High, with no fewer than four teams having already participated in preseason festivals.
In addition, there are a number of tournaments coming up in the holidays.
The U16B girls took part in the annual Westering sports festival, winning two, drawing one and losing one against U16A opposition.
The U14A and B teams participated in the Alex Festival with relative success.
The A side managed comfortable wins against Westering and Alex, as well as drawing against Woodridge.
The B side had big wins against Linkside and Gelvandale, lost narrowly to DSG and drew with Victoria Park.
The first team, which had a great opportunity to recover from the narrow loss in the final of the SPAR Hockey Challenge on Wednesday last week, took part in the annual Greg Belling Festival hosted by Clarendon in East London over the weekend.
Their first match was against the strong and experienced Voortrekker team from Bethlehem. The sides were evenly matched and went into half time 1-1. Voortrekker took the lead early in the second half and would have claimed victory but for a moment of brilliance from Taz Preller, who netted the equaliser.
She then had a late chance to win the match, but the crossbar denied her.
On the second day, Collegiate took on Queenstown Girl’s High School and Stirling, winning the first game 4-0.
But they were pushed to the limit by Stirling, who held a 1-0 lead until the last five minutes before a penalty corner goal, scored by Lara Cunningham, brought Collegiate back to life, resulting in a 3-1 win.
St Cyprians, a well-drilled team from Cape Town, were the last hurdle for Collegiate, but the girls were up for the challenge and controlled the game from the outset.
Without really getting out of second gear, Collegiate eventually won 3-0.
Collegiate teams taking part in tournaments over the Easter weekend are: 1st team, St Mary’s tournament in Johannesburg; defending champions U16A, Bloemhof tournament in Stellenbosch; U14B, Rob Taylor Festival in East London.