Curran’s strike sees Elks edge past Pegasus

The tie, played at Upper Malone in Belfast, was, on the whole, a cagey affair without much incident, as both teams felt the importance of gaining the full three points.

It was Pegasus who started with the upper hand and for the opening 10 minutes the Elks struggled to clear their lines and gain any sort of meaningful possession in their opponent’s territory.

However, as time marched on, the students soon began to find their stride and looked the most dangerous when Shirley McCay and Steph Jameson were putting telling crosses into the Pegasus circle.

In the second half, with the wind at their backs, the Newtownabbey girls started the stronger and indeed broke the deadlock after nine minutes when Jessica Master surged forward and picked out Aine Curran who hit a reverse stick shot through the legs of Irish international Ayeisha McFerran in the Pegasus goal.

Both teams won a few penalty corners and had opportunity to add to the score, but failed to.

In fact, physiotherapy student Rebecca Davidson pulled off some heroic saves to stop Pegasus from equalising.

The win keeps the Ulster Elks in second place behind pace-setters Ards and is a great boost before the next round of the IHL on Saturday.