They may have both suffered significant player departures since the end of last season, but Loreto and Railway Union – who have dominated all three major domestic competitions between them over the last two years – still got their EY Hockey League campaigns off to a winning start on Saturday.
The trend in Irish players moving to continental Europe to play their club hockey gathered pace during the summer, Loreto’s Caitlin Sherin and Mia Jennings joining Club Junior in Spain, and Caoimhe Perdue heading for the Netherlands where she is now playing with HC Rotterdam.
Railway, meanwhile, have lost two of their most experienced players, Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw and Róisín Upton, capped 136 times, who have joined the Carey twins, Michelle and Niamh, at Belgian club Braxgata.
Old Alexandra, who Railway beat 3-0 on Saturday, have some rebuilding to do too after Lena Neill (née Tice) and Sarah Robinson “stepped away” from hockey, Aoife Taaffe’s studies took her to Spain, where she will play with Atlètic Terrassa, and underage internationals Lucy McGoldrick and Sarah Byrne joined UCD.
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Loreto, seeking a Hockey League three-in-a-row this season, brushed off their losses, though, when second-half goals from Siofra O’Brien and Mollie Lennon gave them a 2-0 win over Catholic Institute, coached this season by Australian Noah Erdeljac, at the Limerick club’s new pitch.
Promoted Portadown had a dream start to their debut season in the top flight, beating Ulster Elks 5-1, but Queens, who also came up from HL2, lost 3-0 to UCD at Belfield.
Pegasus and Pembroke Wanderers played out a scoreless draw, the Belfast side winning the subsequent shoot-out to earn a bonus point.
EY Hockey League – Division One:
Catholic Institute 0 Loreto 2 (S O’Brien, M Lennon)
Ulster Elks 1 (S McNellis) Portadown 5 (L Wilson 2, R Lennon, E Girvan, E Thompson)
UCD 3 (L Crowe, I Field, A Davis) Queens 0
Railway Union 3 (S Patton, K Mullan, H Quinn) Old Alexandra 0
Pegasus 0 Pembroke Wanderers 0 (Pegasus won 2-1 in the shoot-out)
