In a dramatic final day of the Sultana Bran Hockey One League, the NSW Pride have secured their semi-final place with an emphatic 6-0 defeat of the Canberra Chill in Parkes, knocking the visitors out of the top four.

The Pride qualified in second position for their first Hockey One League finals and sounded a clear warning to their title rivals in the process with the damaging performance.

A second half hat-trick to NSW scholarship holders Alice Arnott placed the icing on the cake for a brilliant day’s entertainment in regional NSW, following on from Grace Stewart’s classy opening half brace.

The carnage could have been horrific for the Chill had it not been for the brilliant goalkeeping of Rene Hunter and Japanese star Shihori Oikawa.

“We came here to do a job today, we’re really happy to get it done. We knew it would be tough, but we put in a really good team performance, which is great leading into finals,” Player of the Match Grace Stewart told Kayo after the game.

After defeating the Tassie Tigers 5-0 last weekend, the Pride found the net in all four quarters in a commanding performance and have minor premiers HC Melbourne in their sights.

“We’ve scored a lot of goals from a lot of different girls. Even last week, we had a lot of different girls on the scoreboard so that’s good going into finals knowing that we’re scoring a lot of goals.”

“I hope we’ll meet them (HC Melbourne) in the grand final because a high scoring match always makes for an exciting match, so should be good.

The match itself was an open affair, played in warm conditions in front of over 1,000 boisterous Parkes hockey fans.

It took just four minutes for Grace to open the scoring, slamming a bullet forestick beyond Hunter after a well-recovered penalty corner routine.

The Chill would have four of the next five penalty corners of the match, but the Pride again scored from their next set play opportunity with NSWIS scholarship holder Morgan Blamey touching home Abby Wilson’s low flick at the far post.

Lauren Yee tried to spark the visitors, turning over possession to earn another penalty corner, before returning to force a brilliant reflex save from Hockeyroos keeper and NSWIS scholarship holder Jocelyn Bartram with a tomahawk strike.

But a minute before half-time, the Chill’s defensive group were caught out and Morgan fed Grace for an easy second – her eighth goal of the league season to secure the top goal scorer award.

Renee didn’t buy what Grace was selling and expertly denied the conversion attempt to keep the damage to 3-0 at the main break.

From there, Renee’s goal was under siege and several times the Pride stung her palms, with Alice helping herself to three goals in an eye-catching display.

Her second was sublime, as she read the by-line pass and desperation personified, dived at full strength before deflecting into the top bins of the net.

It was a truly comprehensive performance, securing the Pride’s third clean sheet of the campaign and made up for their finals miss in Season 1.

HC Melbourne will now tackle defending champions the Brisbane Blaze in a repeat of the 2019 grand final that ended with an epic penalty shootout, while the Pride will face the Perth Thundersticks for a spot in the big dance next Sunday in Bendigo.

The men’s team went down to the Chill but are still through to the finals series taking place in Bendigo on the 19th 20th November 2022.

Article courtesy of Hockey One

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