With 107 international caps to her name Rachel Kohler isn't exactly a stranger to the big occasion but the Harlequins midfielder can't remember too many days in her hockey career to rival Saturday when her club won through to the first Irish Senior Cup final in their history.
"A dream come true, the highlight of my club career so far," she said after beating Ballymoney 2-0 at Farmers' Cross in the replay of their Sharwoods' semi-final, clinching their place in next Saturday's final against Hermes at Belfield. If there was nothing to choose between the teams in the drawn game Harlequins had the upper hand in much of the replay, converting their greater possession into the lead midway through the first half. Muckross old-girl Ciara McGrath got the goal, slotting home a rebound from Joyce Kehelly's short corner strike. Kohler doubled Harlequins' lead early in the second half.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/f1b9c8e1-66b0-4f83-ad11-12d4383c8edb.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)