Fourth grand finals for Grantleigh hockey girls
NORTH Coast Regional winners Grantleigh College earned their best-ever result at the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge in their fourth appearance in the Grand Finals, held last weekend at St Mary’s DSG.
The competition hosts 10 regional winners from KZN for two days of competitive hockey, with Grantleigh finishing seventh overall.
Host school, St Mary’s DSG lost to Durban Girls’ College in the final, who reclaimed the title of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge after seven years.
Grantleigh met Kuswag Hoërskool in the opening game and claimed their first victory, slotting in three goals while keeping a clean sheet.
In their second game, the score line swapped, with St Anne’s College from Hilton putting three goals past Grantleigh, who were unable to counterattack.
Grantleigh's third game, against fellow travelling team King Edward High School from Matatiele, ended in a 2-0 win.
In their final pool game, Grantleigh crashed to established hockey team Durban
Girls’ College, who won the match 1-0 to progress to the final.
Grantleigh went down to Vryheid’s Hoërskool Pionier in their final cross pool play-off.
The north coast team then met King Edward High School for the second time over the weekend and, in three minutes of play, Grantleigh netted two goals, with one from Kayla Hassard in the tenth minute, followed by Emily Herbst finding the back of the box in the 12th minute.
Over the history of the tournament, which began in 2011, 935 KZN teams have participated in 110 regional tournaments, with 16 380 girls taking to the turf in 10 regionals, with a total of 2 010 matches played.