ICC & JIC Week 2 wrap up

Week 2 of the Indoor Club Championships and Junior Indoor Challenge commenced on Friday night, with the Open Women’s & Men’s Division 2 and Under 14 Junior Indoor Challenge.

Open Women’s Division 2

There was a total of 30 matches played across the three days at MSC Parkville and Monash University, with 143 goals scored, with the leading goal scorer going to Bridgette de la Mere and Majella Hine tied for 10 goals each.

With the top 2 teams from Pool A and Pool B progressing into the Semi-Final matches, it was Essendon v Yarra in SF1 and Waverley v Hawthorn in SF2. The remaining teams battled in out in Pools C and D to classify finishing spots 5-10.

In SF1, Essendon got out to a hot start, but a trio of Yarra goals in the last 2 minutes of the first half saw Yarra up 3-2 going into the 2^nd half. It was a tight contest for the remaining 18 minutes, with neither team able to get an edge, and Yarra was looking destined to make the Grand Final as time ticked down. But in the final minute of the match, a field goal from Essendon’s Kathryn Carter tied the match up at 3-3, and as the higher ranked team, Essendon would be declared the victors in a draw scenario. Right before the final siren sounded, a penalty corner from Essendon’s Eliza Pettit crushed Yarra’s finals dreams, and secured Essendon their Grand Final visit.

In SF2, Waverley were the first to score behind leading goal scorer Majella Hine, and Waverley headed into the 2^nd half up 1-0. It would then be 2 unanswered goals from Waverley to start the 2^nd half, and Bridgette de la Mere put Waverley out of reach netting a penalty corner in the 34^th minute, stretching the lead to 4-0. Hawthorn did not go down without a fight though, as two goals were scored in the 35^th and 36^th minutes, but it was too little too late, as Waverley progressed to meet Essendon in the GF with a 4-2 win.

In the GF, the two top ranked teams battled it out for the rights to call themselves Champions. Essendon struck early, with a goal from Zoe Klopak in the 2^nd minute, which would prove to be the only goal of the first half. Sye-Anne Hocking from Waverley then levelled it up halfway through the 2^nd half, but it would be Essendon netting two more unanswered goals to close out the match, and walk away as the Open Div 2 Champions.

The final standings were as follows:

Open Men’s Division 2

There was a total of 14 matches played across the three days at MSC Parkville, with 95 goals scored, with the leading goal scorer going to Kobe Dudley from TEM, with 11 goals.

TEM and PEGS finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively in the pool matches, seeing them progress to the Gold Medal match. In the pool stages, the match between these two was a 5-5 draw, setting up what was sure to be a thrilling final.

It was TEM who drew first blood, with a goal from Emerson Marshall in the 4^th minute. Missed opportunities from both teams for the rest of the 1^st half saw TEM hold the lead 1-0 going into the 2^nd half. Tensions were high as still neither team could get anything going offensively early in the 2^nd, and time was ticking away, but it would eventually be Xavier Fernandez from PEGS who equalled the score with a PC with 2 minutes to go. This proved to be a short-lived lead for PEGS, as leading goal scorer Kobe Dudley responded with a goal of his own for TEM in the 35^th minute, putting TEM within grasping distant of the championship. However, as the final buzzer sounded, PEGS won themselves a chance at a penalty corner, in what would be a do or die scenario. As the ball it was injected, it was again Xavier Fernandez who would be the hero, scoring the tying goal and sending the GF to a shoot-out. From here, PEGS showed the better nerve, winning the shoot-out 2-0 behind goals from Charlie Gunn and James Portelli, and claiming the Championship.

Altona, Camberwell and KBH each played 2 cross-over matches each to determine finishing positions 3-5. All 3 matches were closely contested, but Camberwell proved to be the dominant of the 3, with 1 win and 1 loss, giving them 3^rd place overall, followed by KBH then Altona.

The final standings were as follows:

Thank you to Stuart Westmore for his time this weekend taking photos of the event!  Go visit @hockeyvictoriaofficial and @skwhockeypics on Instagram to see our players in action!

View the full photo album here.

Under 14 Mixed Junior Indoor Challenge

The Under 14 Mixed JIC was run at Monash University, with 9 teams participating across Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday morning saw each team play 3-4 pool matches in their first pool groups, for a total of 16 matches. Then on Sunday afternoon, teams were placed into subsequent pools based on their finishing positions in their original pool around. They played an extra 2 cross-over matches to round of the weekend! It was great to see our up-and-coming indoor players put on such a great display of hockey and comradery!

Thank you to all the officials that participated in the U14 JIC this year, and a special thank you to our Umpire Managers, umpire coaches and team staff for assisting with the development of these officials.

__________________________________________________________________

A huge thank you to all of the club administrators, team managers, coaches, players, officials and supporters that were involved in these events across the weekend!

To check out all of the results from the weekend, please use the following links:

Open Women’s Division 2 ICC

Open Men’s Division 2 ICC

Under 14 Junior Indoor Challenge

A huge thank you to our dedicated officials for their tireless work across the weekend. These events truly would not have been possible without you all. A special mention to the following for their appointments:

Open Division 2

Under 14 Mixed

The action continues this weekend (Feb 16, 17, 18) with the U18 Boys & Girls ICC, and Under 16 Mixed JIC events! Head to Altius and HV Website for fixtures & results, and be sure to keep an eye our social channels for updates.