Lucy Boniface, 17, this week left with Wakatipu Wild colleagues Manuela Sanches Pedrosa, Jessie Strain and Canada-based Polly Bennetts and Aoife Orr for the world under-18 women’s Division 2, Group A champs in Latvia, starting for them this coming Tuesday.
Lucy, Aoife, Jessie and Polly were in the same side who sensationally earned promotion by winning gold at the Division 2, Group B champs in Bulgaria a year ago.
Their competition this time is China Taipei, Kazahkstan, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the home country.
Lucy, who was assistant captain last year, says beating Kazahkstan would be special as they beat her team two years ago to win promotion to Group A.
She adds they’ve been watching footage of their opponents — "they’re fast, intense, so we need to match them, and I think we can".
Lucy’s brother Lachy, who turned 19 last Sunday, leaves Tuesday for the U20 men’s Division 3, Group A champs in Turkey with two other Queenstowners — Max Simpson, who, like him, studies at Otago Uni and plays for the Thunder, and local Stampede player Logan Campbell.
Lachy, who captained the NZ U18s last year and played for them when they won the year before, in South Africa, is also expecting "quite a difficult tournament" — their opponents are Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico and the home country.
"Last year the U20s got second and it looks like a lot of the same players from the other teams are playing again — they’re going to be older and stronger and bigger."
He says it’s "pretty awesome" he and his sister will again both be playing world tournaments this month.
