Sunday, two days ago, the 2019 Season started officially.
The Wellington League kicked off (league schedule here).
While the Vikings women team had a bye on game day one, the Vikings men faced the Northern Aguilas in a rematch of last year’s final.
In short, the season didn’t start so well, as we still missing some key players due to injury or absence and therefore we only had 9 players available to start off, while the Aguilas had a full bench.
The game started initially not so well and we were quickly 1:5, 2:8 down. Twelve minutes into the first half, we finally started to relax and managed to close the gap til halftime 10:13.
Starting the second half, we were able to continue the momentum and got even within 2 goals (12:14) but we then were sloppy with the ball and couldn’t reap the benefits of our strong defence further. Unfortunately, an unlucky collision caused one of the Vikings players with an injury off the court and this seemed to break our momentum a little bit. While we stayed initially close (15:18), we then paid the price of not having a full bench to our disposal and our concentration faded too often and the Aguilas did well in exposing this and regaining the control over the match.
In the end, we lost 22:30. But I think it’s fair to say, that we were better than the goal difference seems to imply.
The next game is in 2 weeks and we will be able to have more players available and we’ll have 4 more training sessions working on our deficits that were exploited against the Aguilas.
Stats – Men
Vikings HC vs Northern Aguilas HC 22:30
Vikings: James W; Daniel (8), Alex B (4), Paul I (4), Miguel (4), Nico P (1), Harry (1), Bjoern, Liam
Aguilas: Yoshi; James P (10), James C (4), Max B (4), Tim R (3), Oscar B (2), Cameron R (2), Tim B (2), Robert B (1), Pavlo P (1), William S (1), Tyler W, Lucas G-O, Zac J
Spartanz HC vs Fruit Flies HC 28:25
Spartanz: Thomas R, Rhys M; Willy M (7), Nick P (6), Antoine D (5), Sam G (3), Scott B (3), Toby S (3), Travis (1). Tom R, Frank G, Hayden O
Fruit Flies: Stefano H; Luke I (14), Tim R (4), Raphael Q (3), Jack G (1), James B (1). Michael F (1). Brendan C (1), Edmund C, Jared P, Francsico V
Vic Uni HC A vs Vic Uni HC B 40:27
VUW A: George G; Alban N (11), Fabio S (7), Lars H (7), Seah F (6), Luke N (5), Daniel S-s (4)
VUW B: William R; Sebastian H (6), Patrick W (5), Felipe R (5), Freddy G (4), Matt S (4), Milan C (3), Santiago L
Stats – Woman
Vikings HC – BYE
Spartanz HC vs Hutt Valley Hunters HC 17:26
Spartanz: Jordan T; Rowan M (6), Taylor N (4), Paola N (4), Erin R-M (3), Courtney J
HVH: TeHau W (1); Shrena M (10), Ailish A (6), La W (4), Thandae W (2), Acacia S (1), Hope H (1), Taylor G (1), Tamara B
Vic Uni HC vs NZ U17 13:13
VUW: Abbey L; Sam G (8), Meli P (4), Sophie (1), Kelsey H, Antonella, Valerie C
NZU17: Faith H; Paris T-F (3), Mercy-Lea T-L (2), Clare T (2), Caitlin (2), Hinetekawa L (2), Metiria D (1), Anneka W (1), Kiara-Leigh D-K, Tawhirikura D