Loreto in at the deep end

Having been drawn against and beaten by Pegasus and Old Alexandra in their last two opening rounds of the Sharwood's Irish Senior Cup, Loreto must have felt they were due a change of luck when the draw for this season's second round was made yesterday. A trip to Belfield to play Hermes was not, one imagines, quite what they had in mind.

The draw put a dampener on what had been a highly satisfactory weekend for Loreto who kept their hopes of retaining the Leinster Senior A title very much alive by beating Alexandra 3-0 at Milltown - they now move up to second, four points adrift of Hermes who they meet in the league the week after their cup tie.

Hermes aren't altogether thrilled with the draw either although relieved they have home advantage and grateful they weren't paired with Pegasus. Hermes, Loreto and Church of Ireland were left in the `hat' with the Ulster champions, with just two ties to be drawn - the Cork club drew the shortest of all straws and must travel north in the second round.

Cup holders Cork Harlequins will have no complaints about a home tie against Coleraine who recovered from going 1-0 down after just nine minutes to beat UCC 32 in Saturday's first round. Lansdowne's `reward' for their 2-1 win over Greenfields - Emily Fitzgibbon got their winner - is an away tie against Alexandra while Ballymoney, for whom Irish international Lynsey McVicker scored twice in their 4-1 victory over Railway Union, meet Knock in the second round - Julie Doak got the only goal of their tie against Ards.

Portadown and Belfast Harlequins, both of whom received first round byes, meet in the other all-Ulster second round tie while the University of Limerick will play Pembroke Wanderers. Limerick beat NUIG 2-0 on Saturday but Pembroke were the day's top scorers, putting 11 past Yeats County without reply - Orla Bell helped herself to a hat-trick.

UCD were the first round's unluckiest casualties after losing to Randalstown on penalty strokes after their match had ended 2-2. Irish under-18 international Sarah Wilkinson gave the Ulster side the lead but Hilda Maguire equalised for the students. Rebecca Winnington restored Randalstown's advantage in the second half only for Ciara O'Brien to level the scores near the end of normal time.