The Rhodes University Hockey Club sent their men and women 1st team hockey sides to the annual University Sports South Africa (USSA) hockey tournament in Bloemfontein, with both team going through to the finals of the B section.
The Rhodes University Hockey Club sent their men and women 1st team hockey sides to the annual University Sports South Africa (USSA) hockey tournament in Bloemfontein, with both team going through to the finals of the B section.
The first day of the tournament saw both sides begin with double headers. The men pulled off two good victories, beating Limpopo University 7-1 and Cape Peninsula University of Technology 3-1. The Rhodes women had a good win over Central University of Technology, but then narrowly lost to their hosts the University of Free State 2-3.
The two sides continued to perform well over the next two days, with the men beating Tuks B 4-2 and University of Namibia 3-2, while the women beat North West University B 5-0 and University of Fort Hare 5-0, resulting in both sides moving through to the semi-final stages.The fourth day of the tournament consisted of cross-pool play-offs.
The women’s side came up against Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and after a hardly fought 70 minutes, the game was to be decided by penalty flicks. The Rhodes women showed great composure and came out as the victors. Guy Gorden, sports officer at Rhodes University Sports Administration said: “Special mention must be made of Rosie Dwight, the Rhodes goalkeeper, who showed exactly why she is the 1st team goalkeeper.”
The men came up against Central University of Technology in their semi-final play off, where they proved too strong, winning 5-1 and entering the men’s finals.The women faced Kovsies in the final, to whom Rhodes lost 3-2 earlier in the week. The game once again went to penalty flicks after 70 minutes of normal time and 15 minutes of extra time. This time around the Rhodes women could not pull it off and ended as the runners up.
The men took the field directly after the nail-biting women’s game, and faced a strong Wits side. Fighting back from a 2-0 half time deficit, Rhodes pulled it back to 2-2 in the second half. The game went to extra time and could have gone either way as the golden goal rule applied during extra-time. Luck was not on the Rhodes side this time and Wits managed to squeeze in the winning goal.
Both Rhodes sides achieved silver medals in their respective B-section tournaments and “had played out of their socks as never before,” said Gordon, adding that “the team produced good results and pure determination from all the players, who did themselves proud and deserve the honour”.
