Five of our First XI hockey players competed at the U18 National Hockey Tournament during the holidays.

Hannah Cormack, Alisha Horne, Louisa Kotkamp, Madi Lobb and Jamie Reid were part of the Otago U18 team who travelled to Nelson. Unfortunately, Briar Duncan, who was named co-captain of the team, was a late withdrawal due to sickness.

The team played a grueling seven games in seven days. The first five games were pool play against Counties Manukau (3-0 win), Hawkes Bay (1-1 draw), Waikato (1-1 draw), Taranaki (6-2 win) and Southland (4-1 win). These results were fantastic from the deep south side. Remaining undefeated is a huge success at this level of competition. Placing the team in 2nd place in their pool would normally have you taking part in a semi final, however, due to the number of teams at the event, only the top team in each pool could process into the Top 4 overall therefore they moved to play-off games for 5th - 8th position.

First up was a tough game against Auckland who have been title contenders in many previous years. The team played with great heart and were determined to keep up with the tournament favourites, narrowly losing 1-0 in an incredibly skilled game of hockey. The final game was against Wairarapa and, after a long week, the group eventually lost 2-1 placing them 8th out of 21 teams. This was a fantastic result for Otago Hockey who moved up 5 places from 13th place finish in 2021.

Well done, girls, Columba is very proud of your achievements. Stay tuned to hear more about our First XI Hockey Team as the secondary school competition rounds out and Winter sports week fast approaches. Our talented team are privileged to attend the Top Tier Federation Cup Event during the NZSS Tournament Week, taking place in Napier this year and we will be keeping track of the team updates throughout. Best of luck!