Women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup (Swarzędz, Poland)
A new finalist is guaranteed at the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup after Waterloo Ducks and East Grinstead both reached the semi-final for the first time.
They will meet each other in this evening’s final four while Den Bosch take on Mannheimer HC in the other semi in Poland.
Morning round-up
In Pool B, HC ’s-Hertogenbosch grabbed a third narrow win as they defeated East Grinstead 3-2 with Lieve Wijckmans’ brilliant spin and shot winning the game.
Before that, the Dutch side had led twice with Josephine Bekkers’ effort cancelled out by Chloe Brown and then an Elke Boers penalty stroke was responded to by Biba Mills.
That left it 2-2 until Wijckmans scored with two minutes to go, giving the Dutch side a third successive win, topping the group.
For EG, it meant they had to wait to see the outcome of the game between Club de Campo and Slavia Prague; the Spanish side needed a draw against the all-ready out of contention Czechs but suddenly found themselves 5-0 behind.
Lucie Ducková fired a first half hat trick while Campo could not make use of their four corners; Adéla Lehovcová and Natálie Hájková also weighed in.
Campo threw everything at the second half and cut the deficit to 5-3 with two goals from Lucia Abajo with eight minutes to go but Slavia held on.
It means the Czechs take five points into the relegation Pool C while East Grinstead took the second semi-final on offer, their first time to ever reach that phase of the competition.
In Pool A, Waterloo Ducks stormed into the final four for the first time as they swept aside Mannheimer HC 5-0 with Daphné Gose scoring five for the second game in a row.
Her first three came before half-time as they raced into a strong lead as they also gave up few chances against their German rivals. Gose added two more in Q4 for a famous result, putting them through to a date with East Grinstead while Mannheim will meet Den Bosch.
The initial group stage was completed with Sumchanka getting their first win of the competition, defeating hosts UKS Swarek Swarzędz 6-4. Karyna Leonova was the instigator once again with a double as they entered half-time 3-0 up.
Swarek did close the gap on a couple of occasions in the second half to 3-1 and 5-3 but the Ukraine side was always just in front and they carry forward five points into the relegation Pool C.
