BY ROMULUS HUTA
In Port Moresby, PNG
THE national under-18 women’s hockey posted its first win in the Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey Qualifiers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Opening the match day two rounds of matches, they went up against hosts PNG and managed to come out with a 3-1 victory at the Sir John Guise Hockey Pavilion.
Solomon Islands started off the match well by getting an early goal in the first period.
However, PNG bounced back to equalise before the first interval.
The second period turned out to Solomon Islands favour again when they added in two goals to seal off the victory.
A 3-1 lead was enough to secure a vital maximum point where they held off a late onslaught by PNG who mounted continuous pressure against their visitors.
The Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey Qualifiers is being attended by hosts PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Australia.
The competition is being played in a round robin format with two match rounds for each nation against each respective opponent.
The match against PNG yesterday ended the round one matches for the national under-18 women’s side.
Heading into round two yesterday afternoon, they took on Australia and succumbed to a 28-0 defeat. The result was an improvement from Wednesday’s outing where they went down by 30-1 against the Aussies.
The results attained from yesterday’s round of actions placed the women’s team on third place of the table tally behind Australia and Vanuatu, respectively.
Hosts PNG is trailing at the fourth spot.
The women’s team will play their final round two matches against Vanuatu (today) and PNG (tomorrow).
