It has been a busy week of Hockey at Alleyn’s. Tuesday saw the U10’s take on Dulwich Hamlet as well as the U11 girls competing at the U11 IAPS competition at Hurstpierpoint.
After an early start the selected 10 girls from Years 5 and 6 were raring to face the competition ahead. Knowing it was going to be a day of tough matches there had been much talk of teamwork, sportsmanship and dogged resilience which would be needed in bucket loads.
The girls faced four matches in their pool including Brighton College, Ardingly Prep, Hurst Prep and Hazelwood. After each match the squad gathered together to reflect on their performance and decide on steps forward that built on each experience. After a tough first match against Brighton College taking a 3-0 loss the team chose to develop a more bold defensive press, particularly towards the person with the ball and improve their support play when they attacked their goal. This resulted in an excellent improvement in game two against Ardingly Prep where they drew 0-0 preventing any goals being scored. Ina and Alicia offered relentless pressure on the ball and Leila made some progressive drives with Cicely.
Hurst, the hosts, were our next competition and competition they were indeed. Taking a 5-0 win from us, Hurst went on to win our pool. But the girls remained positive and again chose a focus for their final game including bringing greater tenacity and hunger for the ball. Along with some great saves, the girls broke through to take two shots at goal and finished with a respectable 1-0 loss to Hazelwood. A huge well done to all the girls who took part!