The Pukke women’s hockey side have gone beyond their initial expectations with three wins from their first three games of the Varsity Hockey Challenge.
The side from the North West pulled off three convincing wins in the first leg of the Varsity Hockey Challenge in Potchefstroom over the past weekend.
“We were hoping to win our first three games but the margins of victory surprised us, which is encouraging,” Pukke coach Elun Kuck told varsitysportssa.com.
“Playing at home did play into our hands a little because we were able to prepare at home and we know the facilities wll.
“This must not take away from the exceptional effort that our ladies made to win their games,” Huck added.
With a little break in the Varsity Hockey schedule Huck has to manage his players well whilst a number of them are off at the South Africa under-21 tournament and camp.
“We tried to include as many under-21’s as we could for the Potch leg of the tournament so there might be some changes for the Bloemfontein leg.
“The girls not involved in the national camp will continue with their same training as well as playing in the league,” Huck said.
The problem that might occur for the players is that they are not only going to be playing a lot of hockey – but a lot of quality hockey.
“The strain for the girls could come because they are playing top quality hockey and they are going to be playing a lot of it,” Huck mentioned cautiously.
Huck is full of praise for the Varsity Hockey tournament as a whole and is also very happy with how the first round of the challenge went.
“A lot of the girls did not expect that we would take them out of Potchefstroom on the Sunday and they went on game drives and did archery.
“It was great that they could see something else besides the town and the hockey astro,” the Pukke coach added.
The tournament now moves to Bloemfontein when it begins on May, 11.
