2009 Press Releases
20.03.2009
Congratulations to UCC’s Hockey and Hurling Teams on their recent magnificent victories. The Hockey team won the Women’s Munster Senior Cup beating a resilient Bandon side on a 3-1 score line while the hurlers were victorious for the first time in 11 years beating a strongly fancied UL team by 2-17 to 14 points.
UCC Ladies Hockey gained revenge for their defeat in the Final last year by recovering from a early goal to beat Bandon 3-1. This was UCC’s first victory in this competition in 14 years. UCC got off to a slow start and had Irish International Julia O’Halloran sin-binned in the first 10 minutes. However, they regained their composure and levelled the match in the 11th minute with Eibhlin O’Donoghue scoring. They scored early in the second half through a sublime drag flick by Audrey O’Flynn and began to play flowing hockey to the delight of their supporters and scored a deserving third goal through Ali O’Regan in the 55th minute.
Aine Connery was awarded “Player of the Match”. Six of the UCC team were members of the Munster Hockey squad which had played in the Interprovincials the previous week-end. Victory in the Munster Senior Cup made up for their defeat in the Interprovincials. The team was coached by Irish Assistant Coach, Denis Pritchard and Munster Senior Coach Paudie Hartnett.
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The hurling team was captained by Kevin Hartnett playing in his 6th Fitzgibbon. UCC’s Joe Jordan received “Player of the Match” for his sterling defensive display.
The team was coached by UCC graduates: Paul O’Connor, Edide Enright and Andrew O’Callaghan. This year’s victory was secured without any freshers on the squad due to new GAA rules prohibiting freshers being involved in senior competition in their first year in college. This allowed the Freshers concentrate on the Freshers’ Tournaments and they were narrowly defeated by CIT in the All Ireland Colleges Championship Final.
The Fitzgibbon Squad consisted of players from Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Clare and Limerick. The squad included: Anthony Nash, Tim Geaney, William Kearney, Conor O’Driscoll, Shane O’Neill, Kevin Hartnett (Captain), Shane Cotter, Stephen Moylan, Eoin Murphy, Pat Barry, Matthew Collins, Conor O’Sullivan, Tadgh óg Murphy, Stephen O’Sullivan, Brian Moylan, Leo Sexton, Ronan Spillane, Darragh McSweeney, Joe Jordan, Tom Mullane - all Cork, Mike Wilkinson, Philip O Loughlin, Bryan O’Sullivan, Graeme Mulcahy, Don Hanley - Limerick, Shane Burke, Shane Walsh, Michael Cahill - Tipperary, Eanna Martin - Wexford, Bill Beckett, John Mulhall, Michael Grace - Kilkenny, Damien Browne - Clare, David O’Sullivan, John O’Gorman, Richie Foley - Waterford.
Picture shows victorious Hockey Team: Front Row (L-R): Aine Connery, Vicki O’Sullivan, Emily Kenefick, Ali O’Regan, Jean Long (Captain), Fiona O’Connell, Julia O’Halloran. Back Row (L-R): Karen Olden (GK), Sara Grey, Miriam Crowley, Eibhlin O'Donoghue, Orla Crowley, Aine Donegan, Audrey O’Flynn, Ali O'Connor, Hollie Moffett, Denis Pritchard & Paudie Hartnett (Coaches).
[The girls in the red suits are St Angela’s Secondary School students who supported UCC. A number of UCC players assist in coaching the St Angela’s school teams].
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