The Whakatāne women’s hockey team ended the round robin of the Waikato Intercity Competition with an emphatic 7-2 win over Mount Maunganui.

The victory in the last round of pool play before the playoffs sees Whakatāne finish top of the table and earning a quarterfinal against eighth-placed Fraser Tech.

It was a victory that was well-deserved but manager Gary Maxwell said the Mount Maunganui side played a lot better than the score suggested.

“Mount pushed us through all the quarters. The score doesn't do justice to how difficult they were.”

He said the women now had a week off before they played their quarterfinal, semifinal and, hopefully, final.”

Former Black Stick Lizzie Horlock is again player-coach for the side alongside Dani Maunder.

“They are both incredibly experienced and they are helping these younger girls and the ones that want to play more competitively,” said Maxwell.

Whakatāne dominated the Baywide competition that was held previous to this competition.

Maxwell said there was a hunger in the side to go one better than last year.

“We were beaten in the final last year, so the ladies really want to go one better this time. Last year we had the luxury of having the final in Whakatāne, but this year even though we have qualified top, I think we will have to go to Hamilton. Although they haven’t sorted any of that, we’re anticipating it could well be that way.”

Maunder is Whakatāne’s top goal scorer with nine goals despite missing the early part of the campaign with injury.

The team also managed a seven-goal victory against Fraser Tech earlier in the season.

“There is a good mix of Trident, Whakatāne High School and experienced hockey players in the team. Three played for Bay of Plenty under-18 at nationals recently and one played for Waikato under-18.”

He said the ladies had gelled really well on the turf again this year and having Maunder back had been a big boost to the team with her experience and goal-scoring prowess.

It had been good to face some sides from outside the Bay region.

There’s four teams from Rotorua and the rest throughout the Bay of Plenty.

“We’ve met the Hamilton teams halfway, playing them in Rotorua.”

From their seven games so far, Whakatāne have scored 29 goals and conceded 9.

Maunder has topped their scoring charts with nine goals including two hattricks, while Caitlin Bridge is next with four.