Felixton perform better at hockey challenge

FELIXTON College finished seventh overall at the finals of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge held at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof over the weekend.

This was the team’s second appearance in the finals. They finished ninth last year.

The squad, coached by Marilise Kietzmann, came up against Durban Girls’ College, St Anne’s College, Crawford La Lucia and Amanzimtoti High School in their pool games on Saturday.

Their tournament got off on the wrong foot, going down 0-1 to St Anne’s in their opening game.

But the side bounced back and beat Amanzimtoti 1-0 in their second game, courtesy of a Cate Oxley goal.

Unfortunately, this was the beginning of a roller-coaster ride for the girls, going down 0-2 and 0-1 to Crawford La Lucia and Durban Girls’ College respectively.

Sunday’s action saw Felixton take on Kokstad College in a cross-pool game.

Both sides threw the kitchen sink at each other, but were deadlocked at 0-0 at the final whistle.

Teams then headed into a penalty shoot-out and were again deadlocked at 2-2 after three attempts each.

This forced a sudden death situation, with Felixton taking the first run and charging into the D, moving the ball left trying to round the keeper and rolling the ball agonisingly over the baseline.

Kokstad took to the spot and calmly scored their team’s third and winning goal.

‘I feel that overall we played really good hockey,’ said Kietzmann.

‘We were in a tough pool and being a small school I believe that we definitely held our own.

‘We fought hard and were unlucky to lose our playoff game in a penalty shoot-out.

Felixton met Ferrum High in the seventh position play-off, where Josie Picton earned her team seventh spot after finding the back of the box.

The final standings were: 1 St Mary’s DSG, 2 St Anne’s College, 3 Durban Girls’ College, 4 Epworth School, 5 Crawford La Lucia, 6 Kokstad College,

8 Ferrum High School, 9 Wartburg Kirchdorf School and 10 Amanzimtoti High School. Cate Oxley from Felixton College is pictured knocking in her attempt at a tight angle due to Anga Gogela hunting her down in the rolling penalty that wrapped up the cross pool playoff at the Grand Finals of the SPAR KZN Schoolgirls’ Hockey Challenge that took place at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof Rogan Ward