Black Sticks chase another historic first

The Black Sticks women have 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 yesterday, 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.

‘‘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.’’

The Black Sticks have been drawn with Australia, Belgium and Japan in pool D for the 16-team event in London, which begins for them on July 23.

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.

‘‘I think the first three or four weeks we were sort of still on a high, I probably felt a little bit of complacency within the group. Obviously we went to Cromwell and we got a bit of a wake-up call, that we’re not where we want to be.

‘‘It’s now about getting back on the same page as everybody else and saying what did we do well at the Commonwealth Games in terms of our preparation and our performances – what did we do there that helped us achieve our first-ever gold medal,’’ Hager said.