"Surreal."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's how NSW Blue captain Chloe Barrett described her side's ascent to the top of the Hockey Australia 2020 Open Women's Indoor Championship in just its first year on Monday.
This was the first time NSW had sent two sides to the national competition, with the second-picked NSW Blue winning past the first choice side in a nail-biting comeback for the ages before topping Western Australia 4-3 in the gold medal match on Monday.
"It's still setting in," Barrett said.
"We're all very surprised, not because we didn't think we could win it but because it actually happened."
Kirra Marsh scored twice while Litiana Field and former Dubbo-based Emma Corcoran scored once in the final win after WA skipper Lauren Austin's hat-trick couldn't see her side over the line.
Western Australia finished ahead of NSW Blue atop the Pool A standings, forcing the Blues to come against the first-picked NSW side - who topped Pool B - in the semi-final.
"Going in we were aiming to finish with a medal, but when we hit the gold medal match we though 'actually we can do this'," Barrett said.
"WA has won it the past three years and this was out first year in the competition, so they had more experienced players and a one-up on us on the field in that sense."
The experience played a role early, and Barrett said the Western Australian counterparts jumped out of the blocks early before the Blues regained composure and found themselves up.
In desperation, WA pulled their goalkeeper off with just two minutes to go but Marsh found the back of the net to put them two goals up, which meant Austin's score from a corner after the buzzer didn't affect the result.
Their gold medal match almost wasn't to be, after fighting tooth and nail against their fellow state players in the semi-final.
NSW jumped out of the blocks to be 5-1 up just 17 minutes into the match, but Barrett's Blues - with three other Central West products in the line-up - clawed their way back in.
Bathurst's Sarah Watterson scored a hat-trick - plus another three in the shoot-out - as the Blues dragged themselves to 5-all at the final buzzer, with a shoot-out needing 13 shots on goals to find a winner - the Blues.
"We couldn't believe it happened," Barrett said.
Watterson found the back of the net four times in the tournament in general play plus the three shoot-out goals, and Barrett said playing alongside her and two other Central West guns - the other two being Corcoran and Courtney Hogan - was brilliant.
"It's great to play with them considering we've played together for so long."
She also said it was an honour to be appointed captain, with the leadership rotated in the first few games before the side and coach Shane McLeish made the call to hand it to Barrett.
She'll have the chance to captain again this week when she and Corcoran co-captain the NSW under-21 side alongside Eva Reith-Snare, with Hogan in the NSW Blue side for that tournament.
The first game begins on Thursday.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...