Hockey: Whanganui boys and girls teams make quarter finals at their Under 15 National Championships

Both Whanganui teams are into the quarter finals of their respective Under 15 National Hockey Championship Tournaments.

Both the boys at home and girls in Nelson went into Wednesday's last game of pool play unbeaten and the boys remained so after drawing 3-all Thames Valley at Gonville Domain.

They finished top of Pool A and now play Hawkes Bay on Thursday and need a win to progress through the semifinals and the chance to win the tournament for the third consecutive season.

Ben Skedgwell, Heike Reitsma and Blake Hoskin scored for the homeside.

In contrast the girls lost 3-1 to South Canterbury to finish second in their pool and into a quarter final clash with Central Otago. Amelia McKay scored Whanganui's only goal.

Coach Jan Dixon said her girls would need to improve at this pointy end of the competitiomn to progress further. The best Whanganui has done at this tournament in semifnals where in latter years they have been put out by Canterbury.

"South Canterbury scored all three of their goals in the first half and we scored ours with about two minutes to go in the match. We did improve in that second half, but we will need to improve further if we stand a chance of winning," Dixon said.

Iain Hyndman
Whanganui Chronicle 3/10/19