The NZWLA U15 Nationals were held on the weekend at Tamahere Park in Hamilton. Auckland Lacrosse sent two Girls teams who finished 3rd and 6th overall. For the Auckland teams, it was a tricky lead into the event with level 2 lockdown interrupting both the Auckland High School League and preparations for the U15 tournament.

Hilary Eyres, coach for the Auckland Blue team, commented “I’m just really thankful that we had a tournament! For Auckland, we were quite late to coordinate and publicise because we were in the middle of the local lockdown. We were concerned there was no way that we would be able to put teams together and trial and work together. So we are really thankful we had it in the Waikato this year, to have a little more leeway there and also some potential certainty that we could play!”

Commenting on her team at the tournament, Eyres added “For our Blue team, I think they had great experience playing. I think a lot of them were really appreciative to get out and play lacrosse with their teammates. I think we definitely struggled with fitness overall without having had a school season and without training for long together. You could feel some disappointment from both the coaching side and the player side, as you knew there was more you could do probably! But, having said that, I think the girls felt really positive in building on skills every game and team play every game, and starting to make corrections and starting to grow together. We really saw that in the win against the Waikato Black team and then the third place finish.”

Auckland Lacrosse would like to congratulate the Waikato teams on finishing first and second. We would also like to congratulate the Auckland U15 girls for respectabel finishes given the circumstances and the coaching staff for getting the girls there.