Hockeyroos set for China Challenge

The Australian women’s hockey team has been named ahead of the three-match China International Challenge and Hawke’s Bay Festival, with five NSWIS athletes earning selection.

The selections are headlined by Olympians Emily Smith and Kate Jenner alongside rising stars Mariah Williams and Georgina Morgan, with young gun Kate Hanna also being selected to make her international debut in front of her home crowd during the Sydney series. Smith, Williams and Morgan will then go on to compete at the Hawke’s Bay Festival in New Zealand.

Explaining the selections, Hockeyroos Coach Adam Commens said, “One of the things we’re doing in 2015 is exposing as many players as possible to international hockey so we can begin to narrow things towards nominating our Olympic squad.

Our selections for Sydney and Hawke’s Bay demonstrate this and I would expect there will be further opportunities for players outside our senior group later in the year.”

“Kate Hanna is a clever young player with a high level of basic skill and a good addition to our midfield. Kate’s a Parramatta girl and it will be great for her to debut in her home town.

“It’s exciting to have Mariah Williams back in the group after her injury troubles in 2014 and we are hopeful she can now realise some of the potential that we know she has. Georgie Morgan is a player who has performed well at junior level and who is starting to mature. Her hard work over the past six months in particular has paid off in her selection.”

The three-match series against China begins on Thursday, April 2nd at Sydney Olympic Park before the second and third matches on April 4th and 6th. Tickets are available from Ticketek.