U11 Girls through to IAPS National Finals!

U11 team secure a place in the IAPS National Finals after an impressive performance.

 Our U11 team travelled to Framlingham for the IAPS Regionals on a high after winning a tournament there earlier in the term. The girls played Framlingham Prep first up with excellent attacking and free flowing hockey with Grace, Evie, Rachel and Millie all combining well to ensure that we won the game 3-1. We then played a strong Witham Hall side. We began to focus well on scoring strong goals, but then soon came under pressure and were indebted to our strong defensive unit that consisted of Beau, Lois and Issy in goal to keep them at bay. We played Bedford Modern next and the girls managed to win 2-0 before we took on The Perse Prep where we played some of our best hockey to ensure a 3-1 win.

Stephen Perse were our opponents in the quarter finals and we won a tight 1-0 game. In the semi finals we played Orwell Park and despite dominating the game and creating a huge amount of chances we failed to score and the defensive unit again remained firm, with Issy not even having a shot to save! However, extra time was needed and the game still remained goalless, so penalty strokes were required and very unfortunately we lost 0-1, in a game we could easily have won.

The girls were very disappointed but they soon realised they needed to recover quickly as there was a place at the Nationals at stake in the 3rd and 4th play offs. We had a very positive team talk before the game and the girls took on board the coach’s comments.  Moving 2 goals up at the start the girls were on fire giving them a 3-0 up by half time! 

Our team held strong in the second half to complete a 3-0 win and a place at the Nationals. A thoroughly deserving win for a talented team. The coach commented: “An impressive performance from all the girls who are a joy to coach as they listen carefully to advice given and implement these ideas into the matches. They will head to Rugby School for the Nationals in good spirit after their very fantastic display”.