A GUYANESE national indoor selection travelled to Canada on March 20 to compete in a Field Hockey Canada Invitational Indoor Hockey Tri-Nation series from March 22 to 24.
Also invited to compete against a Canadian national selection and a Canadian President’s eleven was the national team of Kazakhstan.

With a ranking of 13th in the world, the team from Kazakhstan would be the highest-ranked team of the series, followed by Canada, ranked 17th and Guyana ranked 31st.
Guyana’s efforts to participate in this event were really motivated by the need to expose new young players to a high level of competition ahead of the next Indoor Pan American Cup (IPAC) which is scheduled for Pottsville Pennsylvania in March 2020.

The last time Guyana women participated in international indoor hockey was back in 2017 when the IPAC was held here in Georgetown at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
This selection for Canada saw as many as six new faces on the 14-member squad with five of them still under 16 years of age.

Guyana opened their series in Canada with a match against Asian indoor champions Kazakhstan and won 2-1, thanks to goals from Trisha Woodroffe,
The second match for Guyana that very afternoon, however, proved much tougher as the well-rehearsed and experienced Canadians piled pressure on the Guyanese, who defended bravely to keep the score to 0-0 at the half but it ended 6-0
The second day saw Guyana face Canada White, who had defeated Kazakhstan by 2-1 on the previous day.

The match ended in a 0-0 stalemate and by chance the points table at the end of the pool dictated that these two teams would meet again in the semi-finals.
The semi-final against Canada White saw the Guyanese chase from behind as the Canadians went one up through a Madison Babineau penalty corner only four minutes into the match.

The Guyanese seemed to have had their best match of the series thus far, as they showed better possession and creativity in attack than in previous matches.

It took 30 minutes more of hockey, however, before the voluminous Guyanese cheering section launched into an uproar as Nicole Eastman’s penalty corner strike beat the goalkeeper high in the left corner.

The 1-1 final score caused the semi-final to go to a shootout which ended similarly in a 2-2 stalemate and it took sudden-death penalties to break the deadlock and Guyanese hearts, as Babineau scored immediately after Gabriella Xavier’s effort was blocked by Canadian goalkeeper Hilary Neeb.

The semi-final loss meant Guyana had to face the Kazaks once more for the bronze medal match which turned out to be anti-climactic for the Guyanese.

After coming so close to making the final, the 4-1 resulting loss to Kazakhstan was a great disappointment, although the disparity in experience was evident on that final day.
Team Guyana coach Philip Fernandes said that despite the disappointing placement of his team in the end, a great many of the objectives were achieved during the series.

Fernandes stated that the team, being fully aware of their unfavourable ranking and inexperience, had set a target to win or draw at least one match in the series. As it turned out they won a match and drew twice during the series.

Fernandes noted that the Guyanese defended well throughout the series but needed to improve on their offensive skills and ability to convert chances into goals.
All four of Guyana’s goals came via the penalty corner route which highlighted the fact that we were not able to score in the run of play.

While it is difficult to single out players in a team sport, the coach was high in praise for goalkeeper Alysa Xavier who, in his opinion was the best goalkeeper in the series.

Fernandes pointed out that aside from Gabriella Xavier and Nicole Eastman, both of whom carried the brunt of the attack, Sarah Klautky and Abosaide Cadogan had encouraging moments and showed that they had the foot speed to match the seniors.