St Hilda's Collegiate hockey captain Courtney Ross, who celebrates her 18th birthday at the weekend, had an early present yesterday when her team won the Marie Fry Trophy for only the second time.
St Hilda's comprehensively beat the Timaru team of Craighead Diocesan 3-0 in the final at the McMillan Turf.
The annual second-tier national secondary schoolgirls' competition was first held in 1995 and St Hilda's last won the trophy in 1996 when Lindsay Dey was the coach.
Dey congratulated present coach Ian Bagley after the game. Bagley's daughter Jess was in the St Hilda's team in 1996.
The top four teams will be promoted to the elite Federation Cup competition next year.
St Hilda's led 1-0 at the break when Caitlin Blakely scored. Polly Inglis netted two more goals in the second spell.
A feature of St Hilda's play was its accurate and wide passing and their use of the whole field. There was always a player ready to take the pass.
St Hilda's had a strong back defence, with Kate Scott and Kristin Tisdall forming an impenetrable barrier that shut down the Craighead attacks.
Tessa Jopp was an accurate distributor of the ball in the midfield and Nita Sullivan used her blistering speed down the right flank and hit accurate cross balls into the circle.
The best player in the Craighead team was attacker Cass Reid, who was dangerous when attacking up the centre, and defender Sarah Collins.
Annabell Girvan (14), the youngest player in the St Hilda's team, was one of five players from the women's hockey stronghold of Maniototo in the team. The others were Tessa Jopp, Ginny Spratt, Kate Scott and Blakely.
The assistant coach of the St Hilda's team was Vicky Clarke-Joyce and the manager was Kathryn Fletcher.
Otago Boys' finished 11th in the Rankin Cup top boys' competition when it beat Nelson College 2-0 yesterday to retain its spot in the Rankin Cup.
• St Hilda's Collegiate 3 (Caitlin Blakely, Tessa Jopp (2) goals), Craighead Diocesan 0. Halftime: 1-0.
