Women's Hockey: A week after winning the Irish Senior Cup Hermes carried their form in to their final two league fixtures of the season over the weekend, beating Railway Union on Saturday to guarantee a second-place finish in the first division, before beating Loreto yesterday, the champions' first league defeat in 26 months.
The results mean that Hermes face Ballymoney, who they beat in the cup final, over two legs in the club championship quarter-finals, while Loreto play Randalstown and Railway meet Munster champions Cork Harlequins.
The final pairing is Church of Ireland v Pegasus after the Munster runners-up beat Galway 4-1 in Saturday's preliminary round.
A goal in each half from Linda Caulfield and Sarah McGloughlin gave Hermes the points against Railway, who finish in third on 40 points - that's an improvement on seventh place (and 19 points) last season, which, despite Loreto and Hermes' achievements, gives Una McCarthy's side a fair claim to the "Leinster team of the season" tag.
Three second-half goals, in less than 10 minutes, from Aisling Keane, Molly Powers and Aoife Mitchell ended Loreto's remarkable unbeaten run.
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