BATHURST'S Chloe Howard, Bella Crawford and Ruby Cole made their trip to Tasmania for the School Sport Australia Under 12s Girls Hockey Championship one to remember as they came away with a runner-up finish.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The sky blues swept all before them except for eventual champions Queensland, going five from six in their games.
The battle for silver came right down to the last game of the first-past-the-post competition, where New South Wales and South Australia played for second place.
They got the job done in a 3-0 result.
Crawford finished as the equal third highest goal scorer of the tournament with three goals.
Howard had the honour of captaining the NSW side and was grateful for the opportunity to lead the team, which included her two St Pat's teammates.
"I'd played with a few of the girls in the Polding team and a couple of the others I've played against before and play club hockey with. They were really fun to play with," she said.
"It was great to captain the team as well and it was such a good experience to lead a NSW team."
New South Wales showed their tenacity throughout the tournament by winning four of their matches by a single goal.
They had a tough assignment right out of the gate against Queensland, going down 2-0 on the back of two opening half goals, but NSW showed improvement as the game progressed.
They carried that level into their games against ACT, Tasmania and Victoria - all of which finished 2-1 in their favour.
NSW returned from a rest day to put away Western Australia 1-0 on Thursday before they sealed the silver medal result in Friday's strong win over South Australia.
"We're all really happy about the result and really excited," Howard said.
"I feel like if we had played Queensland later in the tournament we might have got a goal in."
The Bathurst trio had earned their place in the national tournament thanks to their strong performances at the NSW PSSA Primary Hockey Girls Championships two months ago at Tamworth.
Cathedral School's Howard and Crawford were a part of the title-winning Polding side while Bathurst Public School's Cole helped Western finish third.
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.
