Thanks to a 6-1 win over two games against playoff debutant Pinoké, the SCHC women qualified for the final of the national title for the fourth time in a row last weekend. The resounding 0-5 in Amstelveen made the return in Bilthoven look like a formality. The 1-1 draw that followed Sunday was a small blemish on the overall picture, but nobody was really worried about that for the confident Stichtsche. ‘I have all respect for Den Bosch, but we are going to win the title game.’
After the second game, you could taste slight disappointment among the supporters along the line. Many had looked forward, after the monster score in Amstelveen – the biggest in SCHC’s playoff history – to a repeat performance on home soil. But Pinoké, with its knife between its teeth, by no means gave in. The team recovered handsomely, played with bravura and repeatedly forced SCHC back into their own half.
It could even have ended in a rare defeat for SCHC. Maria Steensma put Pinoké ahead and a stunt seemed in the making. Until Trijntje Beljaars levelled the score in the closing stages, defusing the opening goal.
Joy for Trijntje Beljaars after her late equalizer against Pinoké. Photo: Rob Römer.
No grumpiness
‘We know we can do better and that we have to do better,’ Van Hesteren said about the 1-1 draw against Pinoké. ‘But you can’t always be top. If in this playoff system you win the first game of the semifinals 5-0, it is logical that you play a little less sharp in the return. With us it was ten percent less than normal, individually but also in ensemble play. But nobody went home grumpy. In two games we win 6-1. Fine. And the fact that it’s chafing a bit now is maybe a good thing.’
Even Trijntje Beljaars, the maker of the 1-1 – SCHC’s 100th goal this season – didn’t have a nasty feeling about the point tie. ‘Pinoké showed in that second game why they are in the playoffs. They showed good field hockey. We had our chances, but didn’t capitalize on them. But that we pulled our goalie aside four minutes before time and still forced a goal, that gives a good feeling.’
The players of SCHC thank the 1,300 spectators after the 1-1 draw against Pinoké. Photo: Rob Römer.
Keeping players in one piece
SCHC’s focus in the return was on staying injury-free and maintaining rhythm, not necessarily on pushing through the score. Marleen Jochems was spared as a precaution, Yibbi Jansen made fewer minutes than usual and young Nanieck Mengelberg got a taste of the big time. Fifteen-year-old talent Lotte Ruts was also given a new role, on the left side of the field.
‘Sunday was not about winning,’ Van Hesteren explained. ‘Some people along the line may not like that, but in the end it’s about growing and developing, trying new things. Taking a goalie to the side and forcing chances and penalty corners in overtal. And then also switching back as a team. If we always do exactly what we agreed beforehand, we become predictable. For ourselves, but certainly also for the opponent.’
Where in previous seasons the team sometimes looked uncertain after a lesser game, this year SCHC is different. One that seemingly effortlessly bounces back. ‘We don’t get stuck in the fact that we didn’t win that second game. The confidence is too high for that,’ stressed Beljaars, who is leaving for Amsterdam after this season.
Trijntje Beljaars steams up between Pinoké players Marloes Timmermans (left) and Elin van Erk. Photo: Rob Römer
Tease Den Bosch
And that confidence is needed, because in the final Den Bosch awaits once again. The eternal tease. The club that defeated SCHC four times before in a final: in 2014, 2015, 2022 and 2024. Only in 2023 was it Amsterdam that put a line through the title ambitions of the Bilthoven team.
For Van Hesteren, who lost only three official matches this season with SCHC (all three against Den Bosch), the mission is clear. ‘If you want to become champion, you want to do that against the best,’ he states. ‘In fact, Den Bosch has been the best team every time in recent years. We are the hunters. We are hungry to become champions. I grant it to the girls from the bottom of my heart. They have the quality, the ambition, they give everything. And I see change in behavior: we are playing with guts and with confidence.
His words, also spoken earlier after the elimination against Den Bosch in the EHL, do not sound like empty hopes, but like a promise. ‘I have every respect for Den Bosch, but we are going to win the title game. If we doubt that, it’s not going to happen anyway.’
by Hockey.nl
