North Harbour Hygiene Systems Senior Women have come to the end of their 2017 season after competing in the National League finals on the weekend.

The girls lead by Coaches Richard Claridge and Michael Buck had been training hard towards the weekend with many early mornings and late night trainings throughout the year.

Coming third overall after the initial round robin, the girls were set to play Marist Women in the second semi final on Saturday afternoon.

The team and coaches had worked hard during the week and went into the game on Saturday feeling well prepared and ready for the challenge.

They started strong ending the first quarter with a 3-2 lead over the Marist with two goals from Ema Carevic and one from Taylor Sheehan. The second quarter saw the girls continue to work hard but unable to convert the goals. A slip in defence near the end of the second quarter saw Marist take the lead at half time 4-3.

This season the third quarter has always a tough quarter for the team, but they were determined to make this game different from previous season’s games. Goals from both Bernadette Doyle and Nadia Pavlovich kept the girls in the game going into the final quarter 7-6. The girls were ready to finish the last quarter in style and came out firing with Emily Nicholson scoring for Harbour. An excellent drive from Bernadette saw the women earn a penalty, which Ema Carevic converted with ease, thus bringing the team to within a goal.

The girls had 7 seconds left with a 6 on 5 opportunity but were unable to convert it. After a well fought game from they went down 8-7 to Marist and would be playing off in the Bronze medal match the next day against Hutt.

Sunday saw the girls coming up against a strong Hutt team who they had previously beaten twice and lost to once during the season’s preliminary games.

The girls had recovered from the loss the day before, and were pumped up, and ready to go. A strong start from the girls saw them take the lead at half time and were up 5 -2 with goals to Emily Nicholson (3), Taylor Sheehan (2). As has been the issue all season the third quarter needed to be strong but Hutt came out fighting and unfortunately the girls needed to be stronger on defence.

The girls did their best but unfortunately could not stop the goals being converted for Hutt and were unable to get themselves on the scoreboard until the final minutes with another from Emily Nicholson which put the girls down 7-6 going into the final quarter. The team were determined they were not going down that easy and came out firing in the final quarter with 2 goals to Ema Carevic ending the game in an 8-8 tie.

The girls felt confident going into penalties with one of the top goalies Alisha Winstanley on their side and some of the best shooters in the league. Unfortunately, the goals did not go the girl’s way with two of the team missing their penalties thus giving the game to Hutt and the bronze medal.

The girls finished the game with a final score of 12-10 to Hutt.

Although the team finished fourth this season, we still want to give massive congratulations to the girls and coaches on a fantastic season, everyone has come so far since the beginning of the year. Well done to Sarah, Amy, Shannon H, Shannon S, Kaitlin, Bernadette on their first season of National League for the club. The futures look promising for our Senior women’s team! A huge thanks to Richard and Bucky who took on a team of very young players.

A big thank you also goes to our sponsors Hygiene Systems (Jeff and Hazel) who have always believed in our club and team. We wanted to do better for you but hope in the future things will come right. Also to Carlton Party Hire who have always been behind the women’s team and helped the girls for years. Without companies like yourselves, we would not be able to do what we do.

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT SEASON