Like last season, Victoria’s women are fully in the race for a spot among the top three. Therefore, the draw (1-1) against direct rival Leiden was an embarrassing one, especially since the goal against fell in the very last minute of the match. As a result, Vic is tentatively sixth grew the distance to the playoffs spots to five points. Bright spot on the squad is Donna Dupuis, who tops the Promotion League top scorer list with ten goals.
With a look that was on thunder, Dupuis left the field Sunday afternoon. ‘We thought we had the points. Then it’s just terribly galling when that goal against falls so late, even though we didn’t necessarily have field superiority,’ sighed the striker, who is in her third season with the Rotterdam club. While Dupuis always scored a goal in recent weeks, she did not score one against Leiden. That’s a pity, but I am especially disappointed that we have now increased the gap with the top three’.
Dupuis (20) is a fierce player in the field. A striker who pops up like a jack-in-the-box, threatening almost out of nowhere. If not with a goal, then with an action. And a player with a crystal-clear ambition. ‘If we don’t make the playoffs, this season will be a failure. Actually we wanted to be champions, but the first half of the season didn’t turn out as we had hoped. We lost or drew, even against lesser opponents on paper. The championship is now very far away, but we can make the play-offs if you see the quality in the group’.
Victoria had eight new players to fit in this season. Photo: Koen Suyk
Dupuis has to make up for missing Huijgens
Her coach Sjoerd Wolters partly agrees with Dupuis. We started this season with a lot of new players, so we have to find a different dynamic. Now a unit is really forming. Our first three games of 2025 were phenomenal. We scored 11 goals in three games, while we had made 20 in the total first half of the season. As the end of the season approaches, there’s more fight involved. Then you see that we are struggling against a fighting team like Leiden. In my eyes it is not a failed season if we miss the playoffs, but that would be a shame.’
Rebecca Huijgens, who came over from Rotterdam this season, has been out for several weeks with a hamstring injury. One that will keep her sidelined for the time being. All the more welcome is the production of Dupuis. The 20-year-old striker started at Victoria, but switched to Rotterdam as a 15-year-old to play higher up. A good move, as it turned out, because in the A youth she became national champion. The striker was unable to advance to the Women’s 1, then still a promotion class. ‘That was only possible as a trainee player and I had to join Ladies 2 on Sundays. But I wanted to make minutes.’
From one to ten
And so Dupuis opted to return to the familiar nest. As a purebred striker, scoring goals in youth was already her usp, but at the senior level it no longer came naturally. The first season she made only one. Last year, Dupuis scored four. Now the counter already stands at ten. Not a high average over sixteen games, but it did earn her the first spot on the top scorers list.
Donna Dupuis (center) tops the Promotion League top scorer list with ten goals. Photo: Koen Suyk
Dupuis: ‘I had to find my place at Vic. Now teammates know how to find me better and I’m more comfortable in it myself. I know you have to work hard to score the goals instead of it happening automatically.’
Wolters also sees that Dupuis has found her niche. ‘Donna and I are insanely similar in character. The proud and the positively arrogant. She knows very well where her qualities lie: diving in front of the goal for her man and scoring. But in today’s field hockey world, that’s not all you get. You also have to help defend, run tacklebacks and actively position yourself outside the circle to get the ball. We spent a lot of time on that.
Still, according to Wolters, Dupuis did not immediately drop the penny. ‘When Donna just joined us as an eighteen-year-old, we regularly heard yes, but when we tried to explain something to her. That’s different now. She’s more conscious about what she has to deliver. That she can’t keep waiting in front of the goal until she gets the ball. Especially after last winter break, she is so immensely fit. She works mega hard, feels like training, radiates positivity. And how you train, that’s how you play your matches. Of course, as a striker you are judged on your performance. But she is also more involved in the game now. That puts her in her power. And then you score goals or, like against Leiden today, you are involved in goals.’
Just as Dupuis has a clear vision of what she wants with Victoria this season – playoffs and otherwise not – she is clear about her personal ambitions: ‘My dream is to play in the big league. If not with Vic, then somewhere else.’ In any case, her coach is confident. ‘Donna is a beautiful person. She will get where she wants to go.’
by Hockey.nl
