Black Sticks Women win at Nations Cup
- Dave Worsley
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
The Black Sticks women have started their FIH Nations Cup campaign with victory against South Korea.
The tournament is important event with the winner earning a coveted spot in the following season of the FIH Hockey Pro League,
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It is also a building phase towards World Cup qualification against Australia in August this year.
New Zealand's win over Korea marked the first meeting between the two sides in eight years. With the first goal to Asian side with five but the Black Sticks responded quickly with diving deflection by Anna Willocks..
The second quarter saw Korea break away and regain their lead with 2 goals, one from a penalty corner drag flick and the other a stroke. However, New Zealand fought back, with Emma Rainey sneaking a deflection past the goalie just before half-time to bring the score to 3-2.
The start of the third quarter saw New Zealand playing catch-up again with an unconverted penalty corner and a reverse shot from Paige Blake, which was saved by the Korean goalie. With five minutes remaining in Q3, another stroke was awarded to Korea, which they successfully converted to lead 4-2.
The kiwi side wouldn’t let them go, though, and Holly Pearson found the goal with another tidy deflection from a penalty corner, bringing New Zealand back into the game, making it 4-3.
Tensions were high in the final quarter as New Zealand fought to equalize. New Zealand leveled the score off a PC with a drag flick by Riana Pho with just over five minutes remaining.
New Zealand was awarded a stroke as the clock ticked down, which Holly Pearson fired low to have the final say, securing the lead and overall 5-4 win.
The next game is against Ireland on Wednesday (NZT).
The eight teams competing for the title at Nations Cup and promotion to the FIH Hockey Pro League 2025/26 are:
Pool A: Canada, Chile, Japan, United States
Pool B: Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Korea