On Monday afternoon, ten local women from Dundalk departed the country via Dublin Airport where they headed to Sweden. Once in Sweden, they will head to Norrkoping where they will represent the Irish Women’s National Team Select in the third edition of the NT Cup. The NT Cup is an ice hockey tournament for women attracting teams from many nations.
The Irish Women’s National Team Select featured in the tournament last year and earned themselves praise from all involved. This time however, the team will find it even harder as they compete alongside seven other teams hailing from Norway, Latvia and of course Sweden itself. The tournament itself will comprise of two groups with the National Team Select finding themselves in Group B alongside Peking Pumas, Södertälje SK and Riga Ice Girls. This will be followed by a playoff against their equal from Group A.
The youngest member of the panel is Cherise McCaughely (14) who has been playing hockey for the last three years.
Head Coach for the National Team Select, Vytautas Lukosevicious, said ‘I think we have a very good chance of taking home medals to Ireland this year. I have not seen the other teams’ improvement yet, but we have trained very hard over the summer and the ladies will do their country proud.’
Included in the team are the following women who are local Dundalk Bulls Ladies’ players:
Elaine McCann
Sonya McEneaney
Rebecca Callan
Lorna Hoey
Caoimhe Lynch
Aime McCabe
Cherise McCaughley
Catherine O’Reilly
Clara O’Reilly
Beatrice Hosgood.