THERE may be no gold to take home for Bathurst’s Lisa Quinn from the Australian Women’s Masters in Brisbane, but a bronze and spot in the national team were worthwhile consolation prizes.
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It’s Quinn’s second selection for the Australian team and the first time she will get the chance to pull on the national colours for the 35s age group after missing out two years ago because of her pregnancy.
The selection was a shock to Quinn especially considering she had to miss two matches when her back injury flared up once again.
“It was a nice reward from the tournament and a bit of a surprise. I’ve been in the team before but nothing is ever certain. I’m older now so I knew I’d have to work hard to get in the team,” she said.
“I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked. I was carrying an injury and missed two games unfortunately.
“One of those was the loss against the ACT and mentally that was a really tough one to watch knowing I couldn’t get out there. Had we won that game we would have been playing the final instead.”
In Friday’s third place playoff Quinn’s over 35s NSW team managed to find a goal with just three minutes remaining to earn a 1-0 win over Tasmania.
Quinn found herself yellow carded with 13 minutes to go, but her team were able to keep a clean sheet until Karen Bowden stepped up to hit the winner.
Three second half yellow cards marked a fiery encounter against Victoria to start Quinn’s campaign, in which NSW held on for a 1-0 win.
Winning ways didn’t roll on from there as a pair of early ACT goals handed NSW a 2-0 loss.
Following a thrilling 3-2 win for NSW over South Australia, Quinn came back into the team in time for their most anticipated match against Queensland.
The hosts were far too good, however, as they put four past NSW while keeping a clean sheet.
Despite wins to come over Tasmania (4-2) and Western Australia (3-1), the two losses in the round robin stage were enough to deny Quinn’s squad a spot in the decider.
“It was a nice consolation to get third. Overall, when they added up the results across all age groups, NSW also finished equal first in the competition along with Queensland,” Quinn said. “I think I’ll now have a good month or so off to help get myself ready for the World Cup, which is on at the end of March.”
