Collegians women advance to final | Manawatu-Wanganui Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Manawatu-Wanganui

One up and one down for the Wanganui senior hockey teams in their Manawatu League semi-finals on Saturday.

Collegians women play Palmerston North side College in this Saturday's final in that city after knocking out higher-placed High School Hockey Club 4-2.

But on the adjoining Palmerston North turf at the same time on Saturday, HSHC had the better of the Wanganui men's TCOB side 4-2 to leave the men just an end-of-season friendly against a Taranaki side this weekend to finish off.

Things didn't start well for Collegians in their match. HSHC were a goal up within 30sec.

But the relatively recent regaining of the "old heads" into the team helped, and an Anna Symes goal after 17 minutes evened the game up.

It was all Collegians in the second half, with Katherine Paul, Hayley Mallinder and Kara Jurgens scoring goals.

"Defensively we struggled in the first half," captain Colleen Bayliss said. "In the second half we tightened the passing and our defence, we tried to protect the middle of the field more."

Nicola Skedgewell (inside right), and Anna Symes and Hayley Mallinder on the left side were highly effective, indicating the recent influence of the more experienced players in the team.

The TCOB men were down 0-2 before a first half goal from Sam Collins on the left wing.

Callum Wilbur scored with a reverse flick after 20 minutes of the second half with TCOB still down 2-4, but they couldn't do anything about an increasingly more dominant HSHC team.

Coach Brett Puklowski however said his team had gone about their task with a tonne of enthusiasm and effort.

"They worked really well, but we were beaten by a better team on the day."