There’s a saying in sport that goes, “Win or lose, make the other team remember they played you.”
Union’s junior hockey teams certainly achieved this during their Interschools encounter against Volkskool on Saturday, 10 August.
Delivering mixed results, with the 1st Juniors losing 1 – 2 and the 2nd Juniors winning 8 – 0, the games were truly memorable ones,  with both teams having played their hearts out.
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Here follows the full match reports:
• After a fairly mediocre season, the pressure for the 2nd Juniors to perform in this final fixture was immense.
Despite this, the girls romped home to a convincing 8 – 0 win.
Volkskool was quick off the mark with an immediate attack, but after a few tense seconds, the Union girls got their bearings and countered with an onslaught
of their own that lasted for the remainder of the match. The girls gave no quarter and continued to pummel the Volkskool defense mercilessly, at one point
scoring a staggering 4 goals in the space of 5 minutes. Well done to this young team on a flawless and gutsy performance and congratulations to the goal-scorers: Tara Ferreira (2), Misha Newton(1), Azisa Mduduma (1), Mecoli Vorster (2) and a hat-trick for Emma Short (2).
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• Union’s 1st juniors were unfortunate to suffer a disappointing 2 – 1 defeat in what proved to be an epic clash against their well-matched Volkskool counterparts.
The Union team opened the scoring with a delightfully opportunistic goal from Leshay Fourie in the 1st quarter of the game. Volkskool soon equalized however,
sending the two teams into the half-time break on even footing. The frenetic pace continued into the 2nd half with both teams battling for every inch.
Despite the fact that Union had many forays into their attacking circle, they were unable to convert their efforts to points on the board. As they approached the final 10 minutes of the game, Volkskool slotted home a second goal to put them into the lead. This created further urgency in the Union girls, who relentlessly chased down every ball and made determined efforts to equalize, but were denied at every turn. “The girls must be congratulated on an incredible effort.
They gave their absolute all on the day and I could not have asked for more. I am so very proud of both my teams who played with great spirit and maturity in the face of such intense pressure,” said coach Karen Schoeman. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Kendall Krige for assisting with umpiring the junior hockey matches this term, and also Kyle-Luke du Preez for not only assisting with the umpiring, but also for giving up his own time to help coach the 2nd team girls and give them the grounding that enabled them to pull off their incredible win. Your efforts are much appreciated.”