{"id":45777,"date":"2024-05-19T13:48:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T11:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=45777"},"modified":"2024-05-19T13:48:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T11:48:48","slug":"st-marys-crowned-st-annes-cup-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=45777","title":{"rendered":"St Mary’s crowned St Anne’s Cup champions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jamie
Jamie Da Silva scored St Mary’s DSG’s second goal in a convincing 4-0 win over Durban Girls’ College in the final of the St Anne’s Cup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St Mary\u2019s DSG (Kloof)<\/strong> played outstanding hockey on their way to being crowned the inaugural winners of the St Anne’s Cup<\/strong>. They put on a polished performance to romp to a 4-0 win over Durban Girls’ College (DGC)<\/strong> in the final on Sunday.<\/p>\n

St Mary’s served notice that they meant business from day one, with victories over Menlopark <\/strong>and Eunice. <\/strong>They went on to finish as the only unbeaten team in the competition.<\/p>\n

Before the final, they won all four of their matches. DGC, meanwhile, won three and drew one.<\/p>\n

With their victory in the final, St Mary’s became the first team to record a win over DGC since the Durban side went down against St Mary’s Waverley<\/strong> in a pool match at the St Mary’s Waverley Festival<\/strong>. Given that background, plus the fact that DGC had defeated St Mary’s 3-2 in a league match in April, DGC was favoured on paper.<\/p>\n

“I think the girls, since our defeat against DGC in our league fixture, have just been focussing on the greater goal, which is to keep moving forward and improving and sticking to playing our brand of hockey,” Carla Anne Mackay<\/strong>, the St Mary\u2019s coach, said after her team lifted the title.<\/p>\n

It was one-way traffic from pass back, as Mackay’s charges dominated possession. The first five minutes of the match, which they spent in the DGC half, set the tone for the rest of the contest. In the moments when DGC won possession, the Georgia Pollock<\/strong>-captained unit committed nine players in defence and denied DGC any space to manoeuvre.<\/p>\n

They performed like a well-oiled machine in midfield and at the back, which neutralised the threat posed by Ruby Kraus<\/strong>, the tournament\u2019s leading scorer, by denying her service from her teammates. As a result, St Mary’s goalkeeper, Josie Wylie<\/strong>, was barely tested.<\/p>\n

There were only two minutes remaining in the match when she was called on to make her first save. A minute later, she made her second and last, after being a spectator until that point.<\/p>\n

When they were dispossessed in the DGC half, St Mary’s pressed with great efficiency. DGC struggled to exit and, when they got out of their half, St Mary’s turned over possession.<\/p>\n

Pollock and her teammates’ dominance was reflected in the penalty corner count, which favoured St Mary’s by a 7-1 margin.\u00a0However, despite the Saints’ dominance, the first half ended goalless.<\/p>\n

St Mary’s had an opportunity to take an early lead when they won their first penalty corner. Then, when two DGC defenders broke early, they were down to two defenders and the ‘keeper. St Mary’s opted for a variation, but the final pass went to the near post and goalkeeper Ella Carstens<\/strong> pulled off a save. If it had gone to the far post, DGC would have been totally exposed.<\/p>\n

The DGC net-minder bailed them out of dicey situations throughout the tournament and was particularly outstanding in the semi-finals against Eunice. She kept DGC in that game with a fine save in a 1-v-1 situation with five minutes to go in the second chukka, and then pulled off another important save with just over a minute to go.<\/p>\n

“At the halfway point, we chatted about not panicking and being patient because we were creating the opportunities. The goals would come as long as we kept focused,” Mackay shared. “I also told them that despite tired legs and sore bodies we have to play with massive hearts.”<\/p>\n

St Mary’s attacked the third chukka with greater urgency. Five minutes in, they broke the deadlock. And with that breach of the DGC defence, they opened the floodgates. In the space of five minutes, they went 3-0 up.<\/p>\n

The first goal came after Elizabeth Anderson <\/strong>made a great run into the circle and coolly slipped the ball past the keeper to find Georgia Short<\/strong>, who tapped it into the open goal.<\/p>\n

Jamie Da Silva<\/strong> followed that up with a well-executed tomahawk to double the St Mary\u2019s lead shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

Two minutes after that goal, Jenna-Leigh Freese<\/strong> scored the third.<\/p>\n

Pollock made it 4-0 deep into the final chukka with a cleanly struck shot across the ‘keeper from a penalty corner.<\/p>\n

“The girls have made me so unbelievably proud. Their performance today was really on another level,” Mackay beamed after her team’s victory.<\/p>\n

Winning the St Anne’s Cup was one of the goals she and her team had set for the season. Now they can tick that off as accomplished.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Waterkloof 0 \u2013 1 Menlopark
\nSt John\u2019s DSG 4-3 Beaulieu College
\nSt Anne’s 2-0 Eunice
\nSt Mary’s DSG 4-0 Durban Girls’ College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Mary\u2019s DSG (Kloof) played outstanding hockey on their way to being crowned the inaugural winners of the St Anne’s Cup. They put on a polished performance to romp to a 4-0 win over Durban Girls’ College (DGC) in the final on Sunday. St Mary’s served notice that they meant business from day one, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":45781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}