THE Australian Hockey League (AHL) semi-finals fixtures have been confirmed after Thursday’s quarter-finals at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre were completed.
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Both of hosts Queensland’s teams, the Scorchers and Blades, qualified for the semi-finals with wins over the NT Pearls 13-nil and Victoria Vikings 6-5 respectively.
The Scorchers will play the Canberra Strikers, featuring Mollymook’s Kalindi Commerford, from 12:30pm AEST, followed by the NSW Arrows, led by Gerringong’s Grace Stewart, against reigning champions Victoria Vipers from 2pm AEST.
The men’s semi-finals will take afterwards, with the Tassie Tigers playing the Queensland Blades from 3:30pm AEST. The Canberra Lakers and the NSW Waratahs will meet in the day’s final game from 5pm AEST.
Sunday’s gold medal matches will occur at 3:30pm AEST in the women’s and 5pm AEST in the men’s.
South Australia Suns nil (2) (H. Evans, Claxton) lost to Kalindi Commerford’s Canberra Strikers nil (4) (Taseska, Middleton, N. Evans, E. Bone)
The Canberra Strikers have defeated the SA Suns which couldn’t be resolved in regular time and went to a penalty shootout.
Goals to Holly Evans and Jane Claxton weren’t enough to keep the Suns alive with Tina Taseska, Beckie Middleton, Naomi Evans and Edwina Bone securing the victory for the Strikers.
The first half was a defensive grind for both sides involved with neither the Suns nor the Strikers allowing uncontested shots in their respective Ds.
It took until the Canberra Strikers’ pump play for the game to open up with both sides creating opportunities to hit the scoreboard.
Hockeyroo Edwina Bone created an chance for the Strikers to score double points, gaining possession in defence before running the ball into attack where her pass was missed.
Bone’s run was quickly answered by South Australian Emily Grist who intercepted a wayward pass in the middle of the pitch and ran into an open D however Strikers keeper Rene Hunter smothered the ball and extinguished any chance for a score.
Midway through the third term Suns player Alison Penington found herself open inside the attacking D but her shot was soundly deflected by Hunter.
Consecutive shots by the Strikers kept Ashlee Wells on her toes late in the third term, but the Hockeyroo was able to keep Canberra off the scoreboard with a series of deflections and dives.
With the game still tied nil-all at full time, the match went to penalty shootouts.
Tina Taseska was the first to score slipping a goal past her opponent while South Australian Miki Spano couldn’t do the same.
Holly Evans put the Suns on the board with a fantastic shot around the body but Beckie Middleton answered for Canberra.
The next two shots were denied by the respective goal keepers leaving the score 2-1 in Canberra’s favour.
Hockeyroo Jane Claxton showed her experience, nailing her penalty shot.
Naomi Evans quickly answered for the Strikers.
It all came down to the efforts of Canberra captain Eddie Bone who skilfully sent the ball through Wells’ legs to send the Strikers to Saturday’s quarter-finals against Queensland from 12:30pm (AEST).
Grace Stewart’s NSW Arrows 6 (Jenner 11', 28', Smith 31', 31', Stewart 34') defeated WA Diamonds nil
The NSW Arrows have qualified for the AHL semi-finals after comfortably accounting for the WA Diamonds 6-0 in rainy conditions.
Kate Jenner opened the scoring from a drag flick from an 11th minute short corner.
Jessica Watterson almost doubled NSW’s lead in the 16th minute when she found space inside the D but was blocked by a WA defender.
WA’s Line Malan deflected Rachel Frusher’s 23rd minute slider wide of the target from a penalty corner.
Jenner capped off a nice move, drifting forward, to convert from close range during NSW’s PumpPlay to make it 3-0 late in the first half.
WA keeper Aleisha Power smothered well to deny her conversion attempt.
NSW captain Emily Smith combined well with fellow Hockeyroo Grace Stewart to add another in the second minute after half-time. Smith coolly scored her conversion to make it 5-0.
Stewart got a goal of her own in the 34th minute but Power again thwarted her from the conversion.
In the men’s competition the NSW Waratahs also progressed to the semi-finals with a massive 10-2 over the WA Thundersticks with Illawarra quartet, Kieran Govers, Jack Hayes, Flynn Ogilvie and Blake Govers (2) scoring goals.