Open Indoor Nationals wrap-up

Victoria has started the Indoor National Championships in style, with both the Open Men and Women coming home with medals and a number of individual awards!

Following the pool stage of the Event, the Women’s team were in fourth position and took on an undefeated New South Wales in the semi-finals. It was one of the most dramatic games of Indoor you are likely to see. The first half saw some exceptional defence, but both teams were able to break through for a goal, with Victoria’s coming courtesy of an amazing backhand shot by Tegan Boucher. New South Wales scored early in the second half, but Victoria bounced back a minute later thanks to a penalty corner goal by Jessie Dean. A few minutes later Victoria took the lead for the first time in the match thanks to another penalty corner goal by Jessie Dean and headed into three quarter time up 3-2. The scene was set for a cracking last quarter and NSW got a better start, scoring four minutes in to level the scores at 3-3. NSW took their GK off to chase the win in regular time, but Victoria were able to take the lead thanks to a great deflection goal by Tegan Boucher. NSW then were awarded a PC on the siren, which they were able to run down, but a subsequent PC was awarded. Thankfully it was expertly dealt with by Victorian Goalkeeper Emma Leighton and Victoria won the match 4-3 and progressed to the Gold Medal Match.

The gold medal match started in a similar fashion to the pool match between the Victorian Women & WA (which was a 0-0 draw). Both teams defended strongly and headed into half time at 0-0, which meant to that stage the teams had played a total of six periods with no goals which is unheard of in Indoor. Unfortunately, WA started the second half exceptionally, with two goals in the first four minutes. Their defence then proved too strong for Victoria to be able to mount a comeback. Congratulations to the Victorian Women for a wonderful tournament and taking home the silver medal.

The Victorian Men finished second in their pool and took on a strong ACT team in their semi-final. The ACT team had got the better of the Victorians in their pool match, defeating them 4-1. ACT started the match with two goals in the first quarter. Copper Burns was able to score early in the second quarter to get it back to 2-1. ACT hit back a minute letter to take the lead to 3-1, before Victoria responded through Joel Carroll to get it back to 3-2 a minute later. Unfortunately, ACT started the second half a little stronger and scored first to take their lead out to 4-2, but Victoria again scored within a minute, courtesy of Joel Carroll, to peg it back to 4-3 going into three quarter time. The trend of ACT being the first team to score in the quarter continued and they extended their lead to 5-3 within two minutes of the last quarter commencing. Isaac Pane scored for Victoria with two minutes to go, to give the Men a chance, but ACT defended strongly and secured a 5-4 win.

The Men then took on NSW Blue in the Bronze Medal match. This time it was Victoria that was first to score thanks to a goal to Bevan Fernandes in the sixth minute. NSW Blue bounced back in the second quarter to make it 1-1 going into the half time break. Jake Sherren scored early in the second half, followed by a Joel Carroll goal two minutes later to take the lead out to 3-1. NSW Blue were able to get one goal back, but Victoria held onto the lead to win 3-2 and take home the Bronze Medal.

It is also worth acknowledging that the Men’s team defeated NSW State in their pool match 5-4. This proved to be the only match that the NSW State team lost for the Event.

Victoria also took home several individual awards at the Open Event. Congratulations to Cooper Burns who won both the Men’s Player of the Tournament and the Men’s Highest Goal Scorer Award with a staggering 19 goals from 8 matches. Congratulations also to Tegan Boucher who won the Women’s Highest Goal Scorer Award with 10 goals, despite missing two and a half matches through injury. Amazing achievements by both Cooper and Tegan!

 

Finally, congratulations to Ged Grimwade who was appointed to umpire the Men’s Bronze Medal match. Fantastic recognition for his performance across the course of the event.

Good luck to the Under 21 Men’s & Women’s teams that are in action now. You can watch them live on https://livehockey.com.au/ or check the scores live https://hockeyaustralia.altiusrt.com/.