Varsity Women's Hockey: UCL punished by strong King’s team
Photography by Matt Cross
UCL 0 – 5 KCL. The women’s hockey team slump to defeat after failing to weather an early barrage from a sharp King’s College side.
On a clear and fresh evening at London’s Olympic Park, UCL faced up to old foes King’s College London in front of a rowdy travelling fanbase who cheered and shrilled at the sight of just about any positive occurrence for UCL.
It was a nervy start from UCL and they found themselves on the back foot from the outset, facing the full repertoire of King’s College’s short corner routines. Keeper Tash Durie did well to swat a number of drag flicks out of the air but UCL were pegged back early after failing to clear their lines.
King’s added a further two goals in quick succession as UCL struggled to find their feet against skilful opposition, but they grew into the game and were eventually awarded their first short corner after 25 minutes.
Nevertheless, UCL continued to lack composure on the ball, often squandering possession cheaply and playing several hit-and-hope passes from midfield up to their attacking players, which were easy for King’s to intercept.
King’s, by contrast, moved the ball quicker and spread the play well as they took a deserved 4-0 lead into halftime following a tidy finish that wrong-footed Durie.
UCL improved after the break and enjoyed a much larger share of the possession. Their best chance of the match came mid-way through the second half when Catherine Hollander failed to control a bobbling through ball about 5 metres out. Meanwhile, skipper Cara Macleod made a number of key interceptions at centre-back to ensure King’s had fewer sights at goal.
UCL’s supporters, glugging Strongbow Dark Fruits throughout, continued to create a cacophonous din of shrieks and roars which occasionally a blaring horn or a whooping siren would cut through. Alas, it was not enough to inspire the UCL team to pull a goal back and the game ended shortly after King’s added their fifth of the night.
“I think the team suffered from nerves a bit in the first half”, team coach Chris Walker told Pi, “to their credit, they really tried to come back in the second half and put in a much better performance, but it wasn’t enough to overturn the damage that’d been done. King’s played well — [they] were really strong today.”
“It’s difficult coming and playing in front of a crowd for the first time — it's hard to prepare for it, if things go wrong early on it becomes a negative spiral and you think things are against you. We had the confidence to take a deep breath and start again.”
Zoe Taylor was Walker’s player of the match: “She did really well bombing down that right-hand side getting in a lot of space — and it’s her last game.”