TALENTED Bathurst hockey trio Sarah Watterson, Kelly Baker and Ivy Moore made an impact on the recent Australian Country women’s under 21s tour of Fiji.
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The final might not have played out the way they had hoped, as they went down 6-1 to the New Zealand President’s XI, but there were plenty of things for the Bathurst group and team to be happy about in their undefeated run up until that point.
The returning Watterson was again on fire for Australian Country, the midfielder named the tournament’s most valuable player for the second year running.
It was a brand new experience at the Australian Country level for both Baker and Moore.
The two additions managed to get their names on the scoresheets, Baker taking a five-goal haul from the tournament.
The trio took on the Fiji President’s XI, the Fiji Warriors and the New Zealand President’s XI twice before coming up against the Kiwis for the decider.
Having taken five wins and a draw going into the final, the Australian Country team were brimming with confidence.
They managed a 3-1 win in the opening round against their cross-Tasman rivals before scoring a comeback 2-1 success in the second meeting.
The New Zealand team managed to edge closer and closer to the Australian squad with every match and saved their best for last.
Baker said the Australian and New Zealand squads felt closely matched the whole tournament and she was disappointed that the conclusion was so one-sided.
“We didn’t play strong enough in the opening 10 minutes. That’s when they scored the majority of their goals on us,” she said.
“They definitely came out much stronger than us for that opening bit of the match. We weren’t ready for it and they just really wanted it more than us.
“We were pretty confident heading into the tournament. We probably didn’t play as strong as we could have in the second round of games.”
Baker managed to pick herself up a brace in the team’s 10-0 win over the Fiji Warriors and remained on the scoresheet over the following three games.
The Bathurst City player was pleased with her own performance over the seven matches.
“One of my goals going over there was to score a few goals or help set up as many that I could, and I did that,” she said.
“I don’t normally play at striker, so I wanted to try and make the most of that and score whenever I could.”
