(2/2)
THE under-18 men's and women's national indoor hockey competition at the Silverdome, in Launceston, heated up during day 3 as teams started to tussle for finals positions.
The Tasmanian women's side had a tough match against a very exceptional NSW women's side.
Tasmania's Alissia Pearson was strong in goals in the first half and was well supported by Lucy Murgatroyd, Courtney Pearson, Kira Budgeon and Zoe Crawford in the backline.
Grace Calvert, Maddy Murphy and Emily Reynold ran hard up front for Tasmania, but were unable to convert.
New South Wales goalkeepers Melissa Shoard and Madeline Stewart kept NSW in the game with some top saves.
In the 35th minute Tori Hall scored for NSW, then in the 36th minute off a penalty corner Rachel Divall sealed the deal for NSW giving it a 2-0 win.
In other results, ACT had a tough game against South Australia and came away with a 1-0 win.
Tasmania, in its second game, was defeated by Queensland, 4-1.
Western Australia drew with Queensland, with scores locked at 1-1.
Western Australia scored first through Natasha Del Borrello, Queensland then replied through Birdie Ruff in the 20th minute. In the last 10 minutes neither faulted, resulting in a draw.
In men's action, Western Australia defeated Tasmania, 6-1.
Oliver Lane scored for Tasmania off a well-set piece of play.
The Western Australian side entered the half-time break with a lead of 3-1 and built on that in the second half.
Ryan West, from WA, was strong for his side and was well supported by Nicholas Hyde and Matthew Bird.
Queensland had a big win over South Australia with an 8-0 scoreline; Brendan Laidley was on fire for Queensland, scoring four of its goals, along with Dylan Plummer and Jared Taylor scoring two apiece.
Day 4 starts off with a final lot of round robin games then moves to classification games and finals in the afternoon. Games start at 8am with the final game of the competition at 7.45pm.