Captain goes out with a winner

WESLEY captain Susie Hayes completed her schools' hockey career in style at Grange Road yesterday, scoring the only goal of the game against Loreto Foxrock in the Esat Digiphone-sponsored Leinster Senior League final.

There was little to choose between the teams in an evenly contested game but Hayes, who was superb for Wesley in midfield, poached what proved to be the winner 18 minutes into the first half when she forced home Nikki Symmons' right-wing cross.

Three minutes before half-time Wesley goalkeeper Christina Proctor pulled off a marvellous save from a Suzanne Becker penalty stroke.

Early in the second half, Foxrock again came close to equalising when Lucy Cotter's shot from a short corner flashed just wide of the left post. Foxrock, for whom Becker, Fiona Brady, Aimee Byrne and substitute Niamh Boland were outstanding, went on to force a flurry of short corners and Byrne, like Cotter, saw a beautifully struck effort fly just inches off the target.

Louise Harrison and Susie Geoffroy stood firm, though, at the heart of the Wesley defence and frustrated Foxrock's search for an equaliser, with Pamela Agar, Emma Braithwaite and Hilary Burke also making notable contributions to the victory.

WESLEY COLLEGE: C Proctor; L Harrison, H Burke, S Geoffroy, S Hayes (capt), E Braithwaite, S Walker, A Carson, R Stuart, N Symmons, P Agar. Subs: L McCoy, D Porter, K McKenna, V Wall, R Carson.

LORETO FOXROCK: M Lalor; F Brady, A O'Gorman, T Dillon, S Kane (co-capt), L Cotter, A Byrne (co-capt), S Becker, S Doyle, L Dillon, J Cotter. Subs: A Gleeson, J Coyne, N Boland, L Hamill, M O'Grady.

Umpires: F Brehony and L Ingram.