Crescent keep Mount Mercy waiting

LIMERICK hockey has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and Crescent College Comprehensive provided further proof of the Treaty city’s new prominence with a deserved Munster Senior Schoolgirls Cup final win yesterday.

With Catholic Institute on course to end Cork Harlequins’ 15-year monopolisation of the Munsterwomen’s league title and Limerick HC emerging as one of the country’s most progressive young clubs, women’s hockey is certainly flying in the city.

Ollie O’Connor’s Crescent are certainly doing their bit too,deservedly notching back-to-back wins in this competition.

For Mount Mercy the result is yet another bitter pill to have to swallow; Darren Collins’ girls have now fallen at the final hurdle in three of the last four seasons.

Crescent got off to a flyer yesterday, building pressure via a couple of penalty corners before Karen McGrath broke the deadlock in the 16th minute, pivoting in the circle and guiding the ball into the bottom corner after Tara Lyons and Ciara O’Sullivan had engineered the opening.

Driven on by Irish youth Olympian Roisin Upton, skipper Eimear McManus and Jane Dickinson, they caught Mount Mercy cold at the start of the second half, O’Sullivan crashing the ball home after Upton’s surge had drawn goalkeeper Susan Peters away from her line.

Ciara Mullane, who along with Emily O’Leary, Allyson Moore and Peters, shone for the Model Farm Road school, gave Mount Mercy a lifeline with 10 minutes to go,sweeping powerfully to the backboard off their sole short corner to set up a grandstand finale.

But Crescent know a thing or two about handling pressure, having secured last year’s trophy in extra-time.

They calmly engineered their sixth short corner of the contest four minutes later and Upton stepped up to find the bottom corner of the goal with a drag-flick.

At the final whistle, their ecstatic supporters flooded onto the pitch, forming a circle around their heroines and each raising an item of footwear to the skies.

“Shoes off for the champions” goes the chant – Limerick hockey is certainly continuing to put its best foot forward.

MOUNT MERCY: S Peters (GK); C Mullane, G Kelleher, A Oakes, K O’Herlihy, E O’Leary (capt), C O’Connell, S Browner, A O’Donovan, E Buckley, J Murphy, A Moore, J Cremin, S Wrixon, E Coleman.

CRESCENT: J Liddy (GK), O Hickey, K Fitzgerald, L O’Kane, J Dickinson, R Upton, T Lyons, E McManus (capt), K McGrath, A McMahon, C O’Sullivan, L Barrett, E Burke, A Ahern, C Moloney, H Ryan.

Umpires: L Clifford and M Coombes.