It was nerve-jangling disappointment yesterday for Southern hockey supporters with both the men's and women's under-21 teams being bested in penalty shoot-outs at the national under-21 hockey tournament.
The Southern women played a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Capital.
The first half was played at Southern's end of the field with Capital having most of the possession, but Southern's defence was up to the task with Olivia Smeele stopping several Capital chances.
Southern scored first in the second half with Jamie Wiles scoring from a loose ball inside the circle.
Capital hit back late in the half to take the game to penalties.
Anita Chandler was the only player for Southern to score in the shoot-out with Southern losing 3-1 on penalties.
The Southern men found themselves down 3-0 early in the first half, but bounced back in the last 20 minutes to go into the break trailing Northern 4-2.
Northern got off to the perfect start in the second half, scoring from a penalty corner to extend the lead to three goals.
However, Southern regrouped and mounted a late comeback to tie it up at 5-5.
Southern was helped by Northern having two players sent from the field for five minutes.
Southern thought it had a last-minute penalty corner when a Northern defender played the ball high over his head, but the umpire disagreed to the annoyance of both the Southern players and supporters.
The shoot-out felt like it would never end with each team going goal for goal.
It was Northern which finally broke the deadlock, winning the shoot-out 6-5 to take the two points.
In other men's games, Auckland beat Midlands 7-3 and Capital beat Central 4-1.
In the other women's games, Auckland beat Midlands 4-0 and Canterbury beat Central 6-2.
Canterbury leads the women's competition and Northern the men's. Both Southern teams are placed third.
