Zig Zag made their rivals work hard but it was Bathurst City which ran out winners in their premier league hockey match on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While Zig Zag was held scoreless, vice-captain Sam Martin felt her side had plenty to be proud of.
"We've come a long way in the last month, it's just been a turnaround for our team. It's been a really big difference," she said.
"Now it's wins, draws and at the most 2-0 losses, so it's a long way for our team to have come in the last few years.
"We are pushing some of those top teams, we are putting them on the back foot which is a nice change. We had four injuries today, but we did well to keep it up to them the whole game.
"We look at last year to this year against them - 8-0 to 2-0 - yeah, it's amazing."
City coach Lisa Quinn saw the pressure on at Bob Roach Field as City defeated Lithgow Zig Zag 3-0.
"After we played Zig Zag the first time, I'm actually impressed with how far they've come. I think they've got some handy players in there and we weren't going to under-estimate them after they only went down by two goals to Pat's last week," Quinn said.
"We knew we had to come out strong, we knew that we wanted the points. We didn't really focus on getting goals as such - we are on equal fourth and I didn't want to put that pressure in the back of the girls' heads - but we just wanted to go out and play with the same structure we did last week."
That structure saw City control Saturday's match.
Kelly Baker made penetrating runs through the middle, slick passing and quick transfers created good space and in defence, Kirsten Howard's strong tackling and positional play shut down Zig Zag's counters.
City opened scoring in the first quarter off the back of a penalty corner, Quinn deflecting in a Baker strike.
Zig Zag goalkeeper Jamie Robson made a string of quality blocks early in the second period - including a stick save to deny Quinn - but City's bulk of possession led to more goals.
Jen Roberts found the mark five out from half-time with a powerful right to left finish before Annika Dicker - who switched from fullback to wing - iced the win with a blistering finish in the 43rd minute.
Zig Zag's best chance of the match came in the final quarter when Kelsie Whyte quickly played on from a penalty, but her effort flew across the face of goal.
As well as Robson's solid effort in goals, Jana Winnard tackled well as Zig Zag conceded just once from City's nine penalty corners. Martin said it continued her side's recent improvement.
BATHURST CITY 3 (Lisa Quinn, Annika Dicker, Jen Roberts) defeated LITHGOW ZIG ZAG 0
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Lithgow Mercury. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.
