Mount Anville pushed to penalties

HOCKEY:Mount Anville ... 0 Alexandra College ... 0 (Mount Anville win 3-2 on penalties) Penalty strokes were required to find a winner in yesterday's Leinster Schools' Senior League final between Mount Anville and Alexandra College at Grange Road, with Mount Anville making up for the disappointment of losing last year's final by winning 3-2 in the shoot-out.

Through normal and extra time Mount Anville had the better of the game, winning 10 short corners to Alexandra's five, but even the exceptional Carol McGowan and midfielder Christine Quinlan, both Irish under-18 internationals, could find no way through their opponents' defence, in which Katie Darling, Emilie Balbirnie and Martha Purcell excelled.

Purcell cleared a McGowan shot off her line after 15 minutes, before Alexandra goalkeeper Chloe Kassis-Crowe denied Sheena Geoghegan soon after.

A brave block by Vanessa Buckley foiled Quinlan's attempt at opening the scores from a corner a minute into the second half, while Kassis-Crowe saved Kate O'Donnell's fine effort on goal.

Alexandra, though, came closest to breaking the deadlock five minutes after the break when they forced Laoise Coady into a double save from their second corner of the game, and, with Buckley impressive in midfield and Sara Smith influential when she came on as a substitute, they put Mount Anville under plenty of pressure, not least in the final moments of extra time when they won two shorts corners.

Three saves from Coady, however, proved enough for Mount Anville, the Leinster Senior Cup holders, to repeat their 2001 success in the same competition, with Carol McGowan, Kate O'Donnell and Claire Sexton all converting their strokes.

MOUNT ANVILLE: L Coady, R Copeland, D McGuinness, J Donohoe, A Tierney, K O'Donnell, C McGowan, S Geoghegan, C Quinlan, C Sexton, K Hutch. Subs: L Steen, K Carton, R Reddy, E Conway, E J Coughlan.

ALEXANDRA COLLEGE: C Kassis-Crowe, K Darling, A George, D Stanley, M Purcell, E Balbirnie, K Coughlan, L De Burgh, L Beresford, J Keane, V Buckley. Subs: A De Burgh, H Jones, J O'Hanlon, S Smith.

Umpires: J Connolly and G Walsh.