Wednesday 19 August 2026
The First XI girls hockey team have taken a massive leap forward after defeating Westlake Girls' High School last Thursday at North Harbour Hockey Stadium in the Premier Inter-City Competition!
With Coach Rebecca Baker away on World Cup duty in Europe, it was left to co-coach Andrew Massey to strategize a game plan to turn around their 0-1 first round defeat.
The first quarter was relatively even with King’s tipping the scales slightly on attacking circle penetrations. These opportunities came largely through penetrating runs from Alexis Tree (Year 12, Taylor), Freddie Hatton (Year 13, Taylor) and Luca Morton (Year 13, Taylor). Also contributing to Westlake’s problems was Violet Liu (Year 13, Marion Bruce) who was more than effective with her tight technical skills in attacking areas.
Eventually from one of these penetrations King’s were awarded a penalty corner and it was Casey Halliday (Year 11, Marion Bruce) who rammed it home with a tomahawk shot into the bottom corner.
Westlake pressed hard for the remainder of the first half, however, the King’s defence held firm. Just before half time, Alexis Tree found Molly Davidson (Year 12, Taylor) who darted in front of her marker to deflect home a sensational goal and put the visitors up 2-0.
The second half was frantic and the hockey not spectacular. Westlake dominated much of the midfield looking for a foothold back into the game. They found it late in the third quarter from a penalty corner which took a sharp deflection past the King’s GK Scarlett Morris (Year 13, Marion Bruce) who played magnificently all night.
With a quarter remaining it was “all hands to the mill” as Westlake piled on the pressure. King’s had odd moments in attack, but these were few and far between. When the final whistle was blown the girls had hung on for a dramatic victory whittled out of desperation and graft, traits that the girls will need to demonstrate at the Federation Cup.
Final score: King’s 2-1 over Westlake!