Women's Hockey: Malaysia 3 Queensland Academy 1

By Naqib Nor Said
naqib@nstp.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's penalty corner flicker Nuraini Rashid finally found her touch when she scored two goals and assisted in the other in the 3-1 win against Queensland Sports Academy in Brisbane Thursday.
  The first two friendlies ended in 2-2 and 1-1 draws against the same team.
  Coach K. Dharmaraj's charges are preparing for the Jakarta Asian Games next month.
  The other goal was scored by Hanis Nadiah Onn, off a penalty corner set-piece created by Nuraini, who had failed to score in the first two friendlies.
  "I am relieved to finally score after missing five and 11 penalty corners in the first two matches. The Academy players are no pushovers and are almost same level with us and so its a moral boost for me to score aginst them," said Nuraini when contacted.
  "This is our best performance in the series so far as we defended well and then mounted counter-attacks and won five penalty corners and tucked in three goals.
  "And in the fourth quarter we did not give them any open chances or penalty corners and this is a big achievement because my girls normally let the opponents score after taking a lead.
  "I am especially happy with the performance of several players namely Wan Norfaiezah (Saiuti), Hanis Nadiah, Nuraini, Siti Noor Amarina (Ruhani) and Raja Norsharina (Raja Shabuddin).
  "Youngster Kirandeep Kaur (15-years-old) also gave a good account of herself,” said Dharmaraj.