Crescent Girls keep composure to win C Division girls’ hockey title

SINGAPORE – A switch in mindset worked wonders as Crescent Girls’ School romped to a fourth straight C Division girls’ hockey title at the National School Games on Aug 22.

On July 29, their players were a bundle of nerves when facing arch-rivals CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School (Secondary) in the group stage of the quarter-final round. It ended in a 1-1 draw.

With the teams going on to set up the decider, Crescent regrouped and adopted a positive attitude to prevail 3-0 at the Sengkang Hockey Stadium in a repeat of the 2023 final.

Crescent captain Beth Chow, 14, admitted that the pressure got to them when facing St Nicholas earlier and the result spurred them to put up a good showing in the final.

“When we realised we’ll be playing against them (in the quarter-final stage), we were scared and our morale shrank,” she said.

Teammate Kayle Cheng added: “At first we were stressed, but we overcame it before the final and we were calm today, so we could play properly and to our best abilities.”

Keeping their cool paid off as Crescent repelled two early penalty corners in the first five minutes before scoring through Kylie Lau, who swept home Maira Singh’s pass with seven minutes on the clock.

Beth doubled their lead nine minutes into the second quarter before defender Tiffany Wang sealed their win four minutes from time with a penalty-corner conversion, sparking wild celebrations.

Coach Nordin Manaff called the win “outstanding” while hailing the players’ strong individual qualities.

Said the 58-year-old: “Even though we were under pressure and (St Nicholas) were attacking us, we held the fort and played very well and calmly.”

The display was in contrast to the teams’ earlier clash when Crescent were “not sure of what they could do”, said the coach.

While the team managed to score three goals, it was their defence that won high praise, with 14-year-old Kayle saying: “It was important to keep our defence tight and make sure they didn’t score... so it was a good team effort.”

In a sign of Crescent’s fighting spirit, key defender Tiffany vomited from her exertions during the third quarter and there were fears she could not continue.

Nordin said: “We wanted to stop her but she said no.

“She was the one holding the defence, especially the last quarter when they were attacking.”

On her insistence to play on, the 14-year-old said: “I knew that St Nicholas will fight back so I didn’t want to let the team or the supporters down.”

While it was another defeat for St Nicholas, captain Yang Ziyu said the players learnt many valuable lessons.

“The team can be more composed, but we fought hard until the last whistle and I’m very proud of this.”

On Aug 20, Seng Kang Secondary School got the better of defending champions Raffles Institution to win 2-0 for the C Division boys’ title.