Premier Hockey
Our 1st XI hockey team finished up their season competing at the NZSS Federation Cup/Marie Fry tournament in Hamilton last week. Our team performed admirably, finishing up 6th overall out of the 32 teams in the tournament.
The team came out firing in pool play, first defeating local rivals Rangitoto College 5-0 before defeating St Paul’s on their home turf 2-0. A 1-1 draw against St Matthew’s meant the team finished undefeated at the top of the pool as they moved into the knockout rounds. After a 2-0 victory against Whanganui Collegiate to move into the Fed Cup quarterfinals, the team was left to face several of the Christchurch teams which have proved to be strong this year. A hard-fought 0-1 loss against Villa Maria led to an exciting match-up against St Margarets College. Tied 1-1 after four quarters, the Westlake team showed their pedigree in the shootout winning 3-0.
The final game of the week was the 5th/6th final against Rangiruru. The girls played well as a team but were outplayed by a strong Rangiruru side, eventually going down 1-3 at the final whistle to rank 6th in NZ. This is an excellent result from a young team, and we couldn’t be prouder.
NZSS Chris Arthur Cup
The 2nd XI Hockey team headed to Dunedin to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Chris Arthur Cup, designed only for a school’s second team, and they enjoyed a great week blessed with beautiful weather and some stunning plays. Unfortunately, losing one pool game early on, which the team should have won due to their dominance on the field, resulted in a must-win game littered with interesting umpiring decisions. The loss knocked Westlake out of the semifinals and into the bottom eight playoffs. In their 5th/6th matches, they faced another umpiring decision that influenced the result. They ended up settling for 7th place overall, which was not a fair indication of their performance over the week, but that’s tournament! It was a fabulous week of hockey, with the students working together brilliantly as a team and playing their best hockey all season.
Thanks to parent Rohann Pienaar for the great photos.