Ulster Colleges prepare for Ashbourne Weekend at UL

Queens, Jordanstown and St Mary’s are preparing for this weekend’s 3 ^rd Level Championship weekend which will be held at the University of Limerick. After winning last year’s Purcell Cup, University of Ulster Jordanstown have participated in the Ashbourne Cup competition along with the top tier Camogie colleges in the country however two defeats in the group stages has placed ‘The Poly’ in the Ashbourne shield where they will face UUC.

Queen’s University Belfast were also defeated twice in the Purcell Cup group stages and will find themselves in the Purcell Shield against DIT on Saturday at UL. St Mary’s University College Belfast have fared better than their Ulster counterparts as they defeated IT Tralee in the Fr Meachair Cup group stages before going down narrowly to St Pat’s Drumcondra. Winners of the 2012 Fr Meachair Shield they will now face Carlow IT in the Saturday’s Semi-Final with the winners playing St Pat’s or Trinity College on Sunday. While it hasn’t been a great campaign for the Ulster sides they have had stuttering campaigns due to injuries, club commitments and course pressures.

UUJ celebrate the 2012 Purcell Cup success

UUJ captain Aileen Martin can see positives going into this weekend despite the majority of last year’s Purcell winning team leaving the team. ‘We have lost the majority of last year’s team with maybe only about 5 players on the starting 15 remaining. We did lose our two group games but we have played a number of challenge games since and preparations are going well. We had players missing the group games with injuries but those have cleared up and we are ok for the weekend.’

The Jordanstown team can still boast some quality players and it is hoped these more experience players can help drive the team on says Aileen ‘Karen Kielt has been in great form in helping Derry win the All-Ireland, as did Teresa McElroy. We have about eight players on the Antrim panel and Sabrina Larkin from Tipperary has been a great boost and has really helped the team. Our management team of Aisling Jackson and Cathy Carey have put us through our paces and have us well prepared and been brilliant so we want to repay them with some success’.

Derry midfielder Sinead Cassidy is a student at Queens and despite being disappointed with their results hasn’t any complaints on how the season has gone but is in a determined mood ahead of the clash with DIT. ‘We wanted to be in the Cup competition but results didn’t go our way. We have defeated both Maynooth and CIT in recent times however this year they were just too good for us on the day. We have had a large turnover of players this year and hopefully we can win against DIT. We are full strength going into the weekend and have played plenty of friendly games to get prepared. Joe Baldwin and Mark Rafferty have prepared us well.

Sinead was awarded with an Intermediate Soaring Star in 2012 by way of her performances for Derry in an unbelievable year but believes there is plenty of balance among the squad. ‘ Keelin Bradley has come back for a Masters, Ciara Donnelly is a great player and Brona Orchin and Mariosa McGourty have been successful with Rossa so there are plenty of talented players there. We got in some great fresher’s this year and have a few in their final year who are determined to leave Queens with a bit of silverware.

St Mary’s University College have different problems to the other Ulster Colleges however have a Semi-Final to play this weekend. ‘The Ranch’ defeated IT Tralee before falling against St Pat’s with many players missing both games due to teaching practice. Team captain Emma Connolly believes they have prepared the best they can in the circumstances. ‘We defeated Tralee and were close to St Pat’s but they pulled away at the end. We had many players on teaching practice that missed the game so it affects the team we can put out and makes it hard for ourselves. Thankfully going into a weekend competition we have a full strength squad. We won the shield in this competition last year so we want to push on and win the cup.

Emma enters her final year at St Mary’s and like Sinead Cassidy, the Loughgiel centre back is eager to succeed. ‘ We have four or five in their final year and we want to push the college up through the ranks. We have experienced players like Katie McAleese, Joanne Campbell, Caoimhe McAleenan and Maeve Connolly is back from injury which is great for us. Maria Mooney is only a fresher but has two club All-Irelands with Eoghan Rua, Noleen Cosgrove has been very good in goals. Our management team of Mark Donaghy, Aaron Cosgrove and James Balmer have us prepared as best as possible given the difficulties we face so we just have to give it our all at the weekend

Best of luck to all Queens, UUJ and St Mary’s from Ulster Camogie