Melissa Eastwood at Wollongong Harbour. Picture: ADAM McLEAN
HOCKEY
Illawarra players Melissa Eastwood, Kyah Gray and Claire Rieck are in the NSW team for the open national indoor hockey championships in Canberra from January 5-8.
NSW lost to Victoria in the final last year and will be looking to exact revenge this time.
Eastwood is coming back into the team after having her first child, Gray is in her second year in the open team and is still young enough to be playing in the under-18 national championships later this month, while Rieck is in good form after being near the top of the goal-scoring ladder in the Illawarra competition in which her team were the champions.
Apart from the Illawarra team members, all except one of the state players played in the Illawarra competition this season.
Lyndal Ogilvie and Emma McLeish, who played in the last Indoor World Cup, along with Eastwood will be the backbone of the team.
Rebecca Sanders, who played for many years with the Hockeyroos, will be a big boost. Also returning from last year's team are Alisha Smith, Tamsin Lee, Melissa Williams, Kaitlin Giri and Lisa Farrell.
New to the team this year is Kalindi Commerford, who has come up from playing in the under-21 team last year.
Playing for ACT are Illawarra's Natalie Pastro and Bronwyn Poulton.
The teams to beat will be Western Australia and Victoria, both with experience of winning the nationals, along with NSW, who will be looking to get their name back on the trophy.
The under-21 national championships will start straight after the opens on January 9-12 also in Canberra. Representing Illawarra in the NSW team are Sassie Economos, Elanor Woods and Kizziah Plumb.
