GAINING a berth in the Australian under 21 women's hockey side will be Priya Bourke's next goal.
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Priya, from Chatham, has been named in the NSW Country open women's side to contest the Australian Country Championships in Shepparton next month. She is the Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week, earning a $50 open order at Iguana.
The national tournament will run for 10 days starting from August 1, with NSW expected to be one of the favourites for overall honours. At the conclusion Australian open and under 21 teams will be named.
Priya, 18, will be shooting for a spot in the under 21 squad.
While she's represented NSW on five occasions at either under 15 or 18 level, this will be Priya's debut in Country colours.
She gained a berth following the NSW championships held earlier this year, where she was a member of the Manning Valley open women's side playing in division two. It wasn't a particularly successful campaign for Manning, the side finishing fifth.
"We played pretty well,'' Priya said.
"But the results just didn't go our way.''
Still, Priya was happy with her form and said she was 'hoping' to make the Country side.
She expects to be playing in one of the defensive positions.
Earlier this year Priya was a member of the NSW Blues side that performed above expectations at the Australian under 18 championships played in Hobart.
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The Blues were the NSW No 2 side, but they won their way through to the final against Queensland No 1. They went very close to causing an huge upset, as Priya explained.
"We were up 2-0 with not long to go,'' she said.
"But Queensland eventually got us 3-2.''
She admits the result was disappointing.
"But it was a great game,'' she added.
Priya was also a member of the Manning Valley under 18 team at the State championships played in Taree in May, where Manning was in division two. This also had an unfortunate end, with Manning going into final against Nepean with an unbeaten record before going down 1-0.
Priya plays for Chatham in the Manning division one competition. The side's struggled a bit this season, but Priya remains confident they can repeat last year's effort, when they made the semi-finals on a technicality before working their way into the grand final. Here Chatham lost to Town, the winning goal scored in the dying minutes. Priya also plays soccer for Cundletown and is a representative touch footballer, mixing this with her first year university study commitments.
