World League 2: Ireland women hammer Turkey 13-0 in Dublin
Last updated on .From the section Hockey
Ireland's women trounced Turkey 13-0 in their final World League 2 pool game at Belfield, Dublin, on Tuesday, Naomi Carrroll top-scoring with four goals.
Emma Smyth weighed in with her first international hat-trick, while Megan Frazer scored twice.
Katie Mullan, Anna O'Flanagan, Nikki Evans and Aine Connery also got their names on the scoresheet for the Irish.
The victory sets up a quarter-final date with Lithuania on Thursday after Ireland made it three wins from three.
The hosts comfortably saw off the challenge of Turkey to complete their group phase with a 100 per cent record from this section of the Olympic qualifying process.
They began their campaign by beating Ukraine 5-0 on Saturday and followed that up by defeating Canada 2-1 on Sunday.
Mullan got the scoring underway on four minutes with a powerful backhand shot to the top corner after she was afforded a wealth of space in the circle.
Carroll got her first in the ninth minute, walking the ball home as the signs already began to look ominous for a big score.
Smyth then powered home for 3-0 before the end of the first quarter. From there, it was target practice with five more arriving before half time, some of them spectacular in their conception.
Carroll's second was a collector's item, shooting in off the underside of the crossbar, Evans tickled a Cliodhna Sargent corner sweep before Smyth got her second from a close range rebound.
Frazer cracked home the next before O'Flanagan got on the end of another corner move. Carroll completed her hat trick two minutes into the second half to make it 9-0 as the run continued while Smyth's third closed out the victory with five minutes remaining.
It puts Ireland in good shape for their date with Lithuania on Thursday. A victory in that fixture would give them two shots at reaching the top three of the competition which means they will progress to World League 3 where the Olympic places are decided.
"It was great for the girls to score a few goals and I thought we did some good things today. It was a good day," said Ireland coach Darren Smith.
"It keeps our form going into the crunch end of the tournament on Thursday which will be a tough game against Lithuania.
"From there, we play the winner of Ukraine and Belarus possibly on Saturday so there are two big games coming up. Hopefully, we can do a good job with the tail end of the tournament."
Ireland: A McFerran, C Sargent, E Smyth, S McCay, M Frazer, A Connery, N Daly, H Matthews, K Mullan, A O'Flanagan, G Pinder
Subs: N Evans, N Carroll, C Watkins, L Colvin, K Dillon, A Meeke, E Gray
Turkey: S Guzeller, K Guzelal, C Baser, O Calayir, M Koksal, S Alpakan, A Esen, P Kucukkoc, L Ozturk, E Bahcivan, F Gultekin
Subs: P Yilmaz, S Ozdere, O Yaldiz, D Aksoy, E Iskender, M Oymal, S Turker
