The Tuks women's hockey team will be challenging to complete a hat trick on Monday in Stellenbosch when competing at the USSA Tournament.

 Tuks was victorious on the previous two occasions; however, judging by how they played earlier this season during the Varsity Tournament the team will have its work cut out to retain the title. 

Megan Anderson (Tuks captain) admits their performance was well below par during the Varsity Tournament. According to her, there were various reasons for what happened. The most critical was ill-discipline. It led to players having to spend time on the sideline at crucial times.

"Losing is never easy. Perhaps it was a wakeup call we needed. I know it is a cliché, but as it is said - 'It's not how you fall. It's how you get back up again.'

"Our philosophy at Tuks will always be to go for gold. Nothing else matters. There is no bigger honour than playing for the 'Stripe'."

Anderson views the USSA Tournament as a tough challenge because any team with aspirations of winning will have to play five games in succession, which means there is no margin of error.

"We were off to a bad start during the Varsity Tournament losing three games in a row, but we had time to regroup which enabled us to play ourselves back into contention qualifying for the semi-final. From Monday we will have to be focussed and on top of our game from the very first game."

Esteves, a former captain, who took time out to play hockey in Ireland and Belgium is more to the point as what it will take for Tuks to retain the title.

"Getting to play hockey in other countries made me realise that we are 'soft' in South Africa. It is too easy to accept mediocrity making excuses for poor performances. 

"I was surprised by the absolute professionalism of the teams I played for in Ireland and Belgium. Losing is never an option. On the occasions, we lost there were hard, honest discussions in which no one shied away from what needed to be said. That is why after the Varsity Tournament I was brutally honest in my assessment as to what we did wrong.”

"There are many words one can use to describe our performance; all of them will have a reference to playing badly. The only reason why we started scoring goals in the last 15 minutes was that all felt lost, so we began to play without fear."

From Monday Tuks will play against UCT, NMU and Pukke during the USSA pool games.