Last week was a historical one for Girls’ Hockey in Banbridge Academy with both their U14 and 1^st XI Girls’ playing in their Superleague semi-finals at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club.  This is the first year Ulster Hockey has introduced a Junior Superleague to run alongside the Senior competition.  Having both their teams in the semi-final shows the strength across the year groups of Girls’ Hockey in the Academy.

U14 Girls’ Match Report

A tough match against Royal School Armagh in the semi-final of The Wooden Floor Junior Super League resulted in a defeat.  The Academy started well and went into the lead with a goal from Casey Cousins a few minutes into the game.  Bann were dominant in the first quarter but just couldn’t capitalise on the pressure.  Armagh started to slowly work their way into the second quarter with both keepers being called into action but the score line remained 1-0.

Armagh had a strong start to the second half and scored to equalise.  Both teams cancelled each other out for the remainder of the third quarter.  Emma Sloan for Armagh scored a diving goal early into the final quarter putting Armagh ahead and regrettably even though the rest of the game was played in the Bann attacking half, Armagh held their composure to progress to the final.  Player of the match was closely contested by a few Bann players, but it was agreed that Katie Leslie shone through.  Onwards and upwards now for the reminder of the season.

Thanks to everyone for their support and also to Mrs J Sally, Mrs J Leslie and Mr M Barlow for all their hard work in preparation for the game.

1^st XI Girls’ Match Report

On Wednesday afternoon Academy School Girls’ 1^st XI played Portadown College in the Wooden Floor Superleague semi-final at Lisnagarvey.  Portadown started the stronger of the two teams taking the lead with a short corner strike.  The Bann girls continued to battle and eventually gained some rhythm finishing the quarter 1-0 down.  They started the next quarter with more fire and determination and succeeded to keep the score line 1-0 at half time.

An unmarked player broke and scored on 35 minutes bringing the score line to 2-0.  Soon after Banbridge won a short corner and Alyssa Somerville scored from close range bringing the scoreline to 2-1.

The last quarter saw both sides having chances and with a restructure of the Bann team to push for a draw, it was unfortunate that Portadown broke through and scored in the dying minutes.

At this stage in the season, this very young team shows great promise for future competitions.

Thanks to Neil Madeley and Mark Barlow for all their hard work in preparing the girls for this NI semi-final.