Caroline Springs’ two women’s teams will take a lot of confidence into the Hockey Victoria winter competition finals after both sides claimed the minor premiership.
The women’s top side, which competes in F-grade pennant, claimed top spot a couple of weeks ago, but coach Ron Shadbolt said they were determined to go through the regular season undefeated.
“The pennant side will go into the finals as favourites,” he said.
“It was a bit of a struggle on Saturday against Melbourne University, but we won 6-0 to go through undefeated.”
Aimee Jungfer, Fiona Branford, Lucy Steele, Brittany Webster, Narelle McMillan and Laura Brown were the goal scorers.
Shadbolt singled out Holly Azzopardi and Brittany Webster as two players the club had picked up early in the year and both starred in the top side this season.
The women’s metro B north-west team lost 2-1 but had still done enough to finish on top of the ladder. Helen Takano was the goal scorer for the Springers.
Shadbolt said they had struggled a little bit in recent weeks but were thrilled to get both sides in the top four in the club’s first year in the competition.
He said how they girls performed in finals was the next challenge.
“We’ve set ourselves up for two possible flags and you can’t ask for anything more,” he said.
“We’ve had 31 players across the two grades and everyone had played their roles. We picked up some players from high grades and we picked up some beginners. The sides have had a fair bit of support with players coming on board.”
Both sides are expected to play their finals on Saturday afternoon and both have also secured the double chance.
The men’s pennant G-grade’s season came to an end with a 4-1 loss to Frankston. They finish the season 10th.