UCD undone by Uccle double

EuroHockey Champions Challenge I
UCD 0 Royal Uccle 2 (Magali Demeyere, Sofia Ambrosoni)
UCD remain in second in Pool A of the EuroHockey Champions Challenge as they failed to augment their 1-0 win yesterday with victory today against Belgian’s second ranked side; goals from Magali Demeyre and Sofia Ambrosoni giving the Belgian outfit Royal Uccle the win.

Uccle got off to a flyer, scoring after two minutes following an error in the UCD defence, forcing a penalty corner and the resultant straight strike by the impressive Demeyere put the Belgians one up. They subsequently controlled the game for the first 15 minutes with Grace O'Flanagan called on to make some fine saves.

UCD did force two corners in quick succession in the 16th minute but failed to covert either chance and in the 24th minute the Belgians had two of their own but both were saved by O'Flanagan.

The students did net inside a minute of the turnaround when nice work down the left channel involving Laura Wilson, Rachel Burke and Lisa Jacob led to another corner but this attempt was deemed high.

UCD were frustrating Uccle with their more physical play and the pressure told on the Belgians when they were reduced to nine players following two yellow cards for not retreating in quick succession.

No tangible advantage accrued with the best chance falling to Jacob who had her reverse stick effort saved.
Uccle even managed two corners of their own with O'Flanagan having to make a fantastic reaction save to her stick side to keep the score at 1-0.

UCD were helped further when in the 13th minute of the half a third yellow for the Belgium side saw their captain spend ten minutes in the bin for a stick tackle.

During this time, the Dublin club had their clearest opportunity when a move started down the right by Megan Tennant Humphreys through Jacob ended with a reverse stick strike from Orlagh O’Shea hit the post with the keeper well beaten.

With Elaine Collins marauding runs down the right flank and Valerie Sexton always a threat up front, the Belgian's were hanging on. But in the 26th minute UCD saw their own yellow when Kerry McComish was sin-binned and the Belgians got the killer strike when Sofia Ambrosoni took the ball off O'Flanagan's pads to score the Belgian's second putting the result beyond doubt.

The only consolation for UCD was a losing bonus point which could prove vital. Rotweiss Wettingen drew 0-0 with Cambrai in the day’s other game.

Standings: 1. Royal Uccle 10pts (+5) 2. UCD 6pts (-1) 3. Rottweiss Wettingen 2pts (-1) 4. Cambrai 2pts (-3)