The Blacktown Spartans are gone, four remain in the NPL NSW Women’s finals series as Sydney Olympic face the Illawarra Stingrays while Premiers Sydney University tackle the Northern Tigers.
Semi Final – Saturday, 17th August
Sydney Olympic v Illawarra Stingrays
Valentine Sports Park will host the first semi final on Saturday with kick off set for 3:45pm as Sydney Olympic face off with the Illawarra Stingrays.
With everything on the line, it will be elimination time for one of these two on Saturday.
The Stingrays already faced that daunting task last week and were staring down the barrel of elimination until a remarkable comeback saw them overcome the Blacktown Spartans.
Erica Halloway and captain Michelle Carney were major factors in the win and along with Caitlin Cooper will be key to the Rays’ success.
It wasn’t Olympics best performance of the season last week and subsequently lost late on to find themselves in this position.
Teresa Polias and Susan Phonsongkham will both need to lift their game to give Olympic any chance of progressing.
The Stingrays have the better of the battles between the two this season, drawing he first 1-1 before smashing Olympic 4-0 back in round 16.
Sydney University v Northern Tigers
Sydney University and the Northern Tigers will both look to book their grand finals place on Sunday afternoon at Arlington Oval.
Alex Epakis’ side have had a fine season, losing only once in 2019 all the way back in round four.
They will be keen to go one step further this campaign and claim the double by lifting the championship.
Stars all over the park, the centre back pairing of Tori Tumeth and Taren King has been fantastic, added to that goals from Cortnee Vine and the Tigers will have their hands full.
A well earned, tight victory last week will give Jason Eager’s team belief they can get the job done on Sunday.
Daisy Arrowsmith showed her poachers instinct and added to her season tally with another goal last weekend.
A draw and a win to Uni has the premiers coming into this one slightly with the upper hand.
One this that will definitely work in the Tigers favour is the fact that they played at the same venue only 7 days prior.
By – Nikola Pozder, NPL NSW Women’s Writer