Munster Express Online

Mercy Waterford 1st years travelled to Thurles last week to take on the Bower, Athlone in the Midlands final. This was an eagerly awaited contest as the last time these two sides met there was just a single point between them. And this was to prove another nailbiting encounter.

Mercy started the brighter with Ciara Barry controlling the game and notching up the first few points. Athlone were soon level and the 1st quarter finished six points each. The second quarter saw more of the same with both defences on top and scores were hard to come by. Katie Walsh and Aishling O’Sullivan were doing their utmost to keep the scores down. The half finished with Mercy one point behind at 14-15.

The third quarter opened up a lot more with Mercy taking the game to Athlone and Aoife Frisby and Megan Taheny coming to the fore. Towards the end of the quarter Mercy started leaking scores through some poor defence and Athlone finished the third quarter with a 6-point advantage.

The final quarter was to be an epic battle with both teams going hammer and tongs trying to win the title. Sally Foskin and Sinead Kealy were making inroads into the Athlone defence and it wasn’t long before the scores were level.

Going into the last minute Mercy were trailing by one point but up stepped Sally Foskin who shot from 10 feet out to put Mercy put up one.

At the other end Abbey Sheridan was doing a great job on defence grabbing lots of rebounds. Mercy were now up by a point with only seconds remaining. Everyone was on the edge of their seats when Athlone had the ball. As the buzzer went one of the Athlone girls was fouled so they had 2 shots to win the title.