THE names Hunter, Hunter and Gillard sounds like a law firm, but it is actually three of Lithgow best hockey young talents who have travelled to Hobart to compete in the Women’s Under 21 National titles.
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Keely Hunter, Rene Hunter and Andrea Gillard were members of the NSW team that finished runners up to Victoria.
All three girls have represented at the highest level in a number of state teams and provided a solid core for the Under 21s.
Results:
Game 1: NSW were up against home team Tasmania, in their first game.
NSW were too strong running out the victors 5-1, with Keely Hunter scoring in the 30th minute, through a penalty corner.
Game 2: It was another good performance by NSW who took on ACT.
There was a Lithgow flavour about the opposition with former Lithgow player Tamika Bostock playing for ACT.
Again NSW were too good winning 3-0.
Andrea Gillard scoring in the 17th minute, through a well -constructed penalty corner
Game 3: This was a tough match against the strong Western Australia team and after a torrid struggle, NSW prevailed, winning 4-0.
The wins saw NSW finish top of their pool with the top four teams going into the major pool games.
The game against Western Australia still counted in this system.
Game 3: NSW's match against VIC produced their best effort to date winning 3-1. The Victorian team had the NSW under extreme pressure during the first half with goalie Rene Hunter pulling off some crucial saves.
NSW dominated the second half, only letting Victoria score in the final seconds of the match.
Game 4: NSW suffered their first defeat at the hands of Queensland.
After starting off well and taking a 1-0 lead, the team struggled with Queensland's fast long passing game seeing them score the next three goals to win 3-1.
Grand final:
NSW were up against Victoria and in a match of the highest standards, Victoria ran out the winners 3-2.
Victoria got off to a great start scoring twice through penalty corners in the first half.
NSW had to lift their game in the second and in the 41st minute Keely Hunter pounced on a loose ball at the top of the circle to put the shot away to reduce the score to 2-1.
NSW were back in the game and they then levelled it up when Grace Stewart put a spectacular overhead shot into the net to tie the game 2-all.
NSW were dominate during the game and were unlucky not to have scored on a number of occasions.
With three minutes to go, Victoria made a long break up the field, their shot on goal deflected off a NSW stick giving them a 3-2 lead.
NSW received a short corner on the siren but were unable to convert, leaving Victoria as the champions.
It was a good performance by the Lithgow girls.
Rene plays goalie in the Sydney ML1 for Western Districts, Andrea turns out locally for the reigning premiers Lithgow Panthers while Keely plays for Zig Zag and also in the ML1 for Gordon, North Sydney.
