This Sunday, it was Semi final time for the Vikings women team and as the men team won last week they had a friendly game scheduled.

The Vikings women team faced today the Spartanz HC women team and had a huge task ahead. The Spartanz really improved throughout the season and were the clear favourite in this game.
Before the game, the Vikings had a few players who couldn’t make today due to different causes (i.e. injuries) and therefore we were lucky that two players from the Marsden School team were able to help out (Thank you Stella and Hannah!!!).
So the game started not that well for us we were quickly behind (1:5), at this stage we really struggled containing the firepower of the Spartanz and their top goal scorer (Francie G) was quick to identify our gaps in defense and take advantage of them. After a few defensive corrections we found better in the game, and especially the last 8 minutes of the first half we gained some momentum – 3:10 at half time.
The second half we fought very well and our defense was starting to do really well, but our turnovers in attack and especially our in-ability to score let us majorly down today and therefore the Spartanz deservedly won 5:20.
Heads up Girls, in general we played not as bad as the score would tell, we just need to work on trimming down our turnovers and on being more effective when scoring goals. This means the Vikings girls placed 3rd in this years Wellington League.
Vikings women: Hannah O (1st half), Alex (2nd half); Maddy 2, Laura 2, Alex 1, Elie, Lizzie, Hannah O, Hannah K, Stella

The Vikings men faced today the Spartanz HC men team. After winning last weeks game, the Vikings were qualified directly for the final and this week we played a friendly against the unfortunate loser from last weeks small semi final (3rd vs 4th).
The Vikings men team intended to use the game to further strengthen their team play and work on some individual things for some players who struggled in the last few games.
The game started very well, we were quickly up with 5 goals (6:1) and build the lead minute by minute. The Spartanz team weren’t a bad team, they just couldn’t stop the Vikings attack, who seemed always to have played with one more man, because there was always someone free. I think that was mainly due to the well played team attack which always made one men free and opened up good scoring opportunities. Also in defense the Vikings defense was very focused at the task and played smart. So the half time score of 25:6, was ultimately the outcome.
In the second half, the Spartanz come back with more determination and some tweaks that certainly helped them to create more scoring opportunities but everything what the Vikings defense let through was saved by our great goalie Petr, who had a great game and really challenged the Spartanz shooters every shot. In attack the Vikings weren’t as forceful as in the first half, but that can be contributed to some smart adjustments of the Spartanz defense. The final score was 44:13.
Vikings men: Petr; Todd 12, Luke 9, Emmanual 9, Daniel 5/2, Harry 4, Ben 4, Fred 1

Big final for the men on the 20th of September 2015 at the ASB Stadium (time tbc).
Come, watch and support the Vikings.