Women’s EuroHockey Challenge II – Vienna (AUT)
Austria’s WAC and Welsh side Swansea (picture above) were the big winners in Vienna as they won their respective promotion battles.
WAC delighted the home crowd in Vienna with a great 2-0 victory over Cambrai to complete their perfect weekend of four wins from four, all without conceding a single goal.
Johanna Buchleitner’s powerful drag-flick in the fifth minute gave them the dream start. Cambrai enjoyed more of the game for the remainder of the first half but they could not break through WAC’s tough defence with Stella van Rahden busy in their goal.
The Austrian side regrouped and pinned the French side into their own 23m for much of Q3 and they got the vital goal a minute into Q4. Isabella Klausbruckner made it, breaking down the right wing and then crossing perfectly for Renae Robinson to slap home. It took the sting out of the tie and WAC held on for the victory.
WAC celebrations. Picture: Johanna Perlinger-Ringler
Swansea also made it four wins from four from their weekend in Vienna, a composed 3-0 victory over TSOP Kolos Boryspol.
Fleur Gallagher set them on their way in the first half and they finally broke free in the last 20 minutes. Beth Wood doubled the advantage in Q3 and the final flourish came from Charlotte Hulme with time running out.
Those victories see Austria and Wales finish in the promotion places for the 2024 EuroHockey competitions.
There was not much jeopardy in the relegation matches as both Penarth and HC Olten produced big scorelines against HC Luxembourg and Gaziantep Doruk, respectively.
Penarth won 9-0 with the inspirational Abi Welsford scoring three while Olten went one higher, reaching 10-0. Lieselotte Schoemaker scored another three to bring her tournament total to eight goals.
** Al results, pools, and game stats below from the EuroHockey Club Challenge II, Women, Vienna, Austria
** You can watch back all of the final days fixtures from Vienna on www.eurohockeytv.org
