A DRAMATIC post-siren drag flick goal from Simone Lotter helped take Bathurst to a fifth place finish at the weekend’s NSW Women’s Indoor Hockey Championship at Goulburn.
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With the scores locked at 3-all against Northern Sydney and Beaches in Sunday’s fifth place playoff, Lotter’s strike gave Bathurst a strong result amongst some of the state’s top indoor hockey players.
Bathurst had to contend with a tough pool of teams to get themselves to that point, only just missing out on a spot in the semi-finals.
The team picked up wins against Nepean 2 (4-0) and Illawarra South Coast 2 (6-4) but loses to eventual tournament champions Metro South West 1 (5-0) and North West Sydney (5-2) saw Bathurst miss out on the valuable top two spot in their pool.
Bathurst captain Tamsin Bunt said her team could be proud of what they achieved against squads who get more opportunities than them to play together.
“We had a really tough pool. I think we were definitely a semi-final-capable team, even top two, but we had a couple of tough games,” she said.
“They have a really strong indoor competition in Sydney and the Bathurst girls don’t get that much training in indoor compared to them.”
Guided by Bunt’s husband Jye as coach, Bathurst produced a consistent performance across the tournament.
With a strong mix of players from different regions the Bathurst captain said the team combined well on the field.
“Simone Lotter is a Southern Highlands player, and she scored off a straight drag flick in our final game after the siren, which was very exciting,” Bunt said.
“My sisters-in-law, Kim Bunt and Simone, are state indoor players and they brought a lot of experience to the Bathurst team.
“My sister Rebecca Lee came back from a knee injury. She’s got a lot of indoor knowledge and it was great to play alongside her again.
“Jye is a World Cup indoor player and everyone really listened to what he had to say and executed it perfectly. For us to be top five in division one against these sorts of teams is a great achievement.
“I thought the Watterson twins [Jess and Sarah] played very well … and Kelly Baker also managed to get the development player of the tournament award.
“While we definitely had the semi-finals in our sights I think we can definitely aim for that again next year.”
