NSW’s under-18s will be hoping to put the Blues back on top after their golden run at the Australian Indoor Hockey Festival was ended in Goulburn on the weekend.
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After entering the under-15s championships defending champions in the boys and girls divisions, both had to settle for silver.
Undefeated heading into the final, the girls side containing Tamworth’s Amber Witney and New England’s Chelsea Thornton lost in a shoot-out to Queensland Maroon 1-nil after scores were locked at 0-all at half-time and 2-all at full-time.
Witney was prominent up front across the tournament scoring seven goals including three doubles to be NSW’s top goalscorer and equal second overall.
The boys side featuring New England’s Rohan Lawrence and Tyler McCann, and Tamworth’s Nick O’Connor were meanwhile beaten by Victoria 5-3 in the gold medal game.
Similarly to the girls, it was their only loss of what was a strong tournament both from a team perspective and for the northern contingent.
NSW’s leading goalscorer their last two campaigns, O’Connor finished their equal top goalscorer and the equal third for the tournament with nine goals including two hat-tricks.
Lawrence and McCann also had fruitful tournaments.
Lawrence slotted six including four in their 13-nil win over South Australia and McCann four.
The 15s championships followed on from the under-13s where NSW claimed the boys and girls titles.
The under-18s championships got underway yesterday with New England’s Meg Lye and Lily Neilson suiting up for the NSW girls and Nathan Czinner and Jake McCann the boys.