The two blues levelled the scores at 2-all with seven minutes remaining in the match at Orange but needed a win to stay in reach of finals hockey.

Souths threw bodies up the field in desperation but it ended up costing the Bathurst squad when Feds found the back on the Bathurst goal inside the final three minutes.

The Bathurst women were never ahead in the match.

Souths fought back to find a goal every time Feds went ahead, producing a performance coach Chris Stafford believed to be one of his team's best of the season.

While naturally disappointed not to keep the season alive heading into next weekend's final round, Stafford couldn't fault his team's level of effort.

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"It's up there as one of our better games for the year," he said.

"Needing the win, we pushed up really hard towards the end and that's when their third goal came.

"If we had kept our structure the same there's every chance they still score that goal but it's nowhere near as likely. We probably had as many shots on goal as we've had all year but we didn't put away as many as we needed to.

"It was a fairly exciting game to watch since it was so end-to-end."

Ali Stanford was able to respond to the opening Feds goal and Emma Siejka was able to do the same in the fourth quarter after the hosts had pulled ahead.

Her goal lifted Souths' belief even further but the Feds defence was able to sustain the wave of pressure.