WA Diamonds out of AHL Finals Contention

The WA Diamonds women’s hockey team have missed out on making the Australian Hockey League finals after a 5-2 loss to the New South Wales Arrows on Wednesday.

Diamonds coach, Rob Hammond, was disappointed in the score margin stating that “that’s the best we’ve played all tournament.”

 

In addition to this comment he also stated that there were plenty of positives for his side to take away from there defeat.

The NSW team took no time getting into the game, scoring their first goal after just five minutes.

Just minutes later, following a missed shot by the Western Australian’s, Arrows player Lisa Farrell double her sides score.

Early in the second quarter NSW struck again netting their third goal however this time WA fought back converting their first goal from a penalty quarter.

Unfortunately once again this attempt was cancelled out by a quick goal from the Arrows one minute later.

The third quarter saw the Diamonds come out harder than they had in the first half with Roos Broek scoring a second goal for the Western Australian side.

Just before the three-quarter time break the Arrows scored their fifth and final goal for the match.

Despite valiant efforts from the Western Australian’s to bring the game back in the final quarter unfortunately they were unable to convert any more goals.

The loss to New South Wales follows a win for the Diamonds against Tasmania, one day earlier.

Thanks to a terrific goal by Melissa Luff in the dying seconds of the match the Western Australian’s were able to take out a 3-2 win over the side from Tasmania.

On Wednesday the WA Thundersticks suffered their first loss of the tournament, going down to India 3-1.

This loss means that the men’s side finished second in Pool B and will therefore take on New South Wales in the semi-finals tonight (Friday) at 8pm.

The WA Diamonds were also scheduled to compete today in their classification match against South Australia.