By Will Gregory
USW Ladies Hockey came up short against a dominant Cardiff University side, going down 2-0 at the Sport Park.
Ella Godwin opened the scoring early on for Cardiff with a slick effort that got the better of home goalkeeper Beth Havard.
A number of counter-attacks in the next few minutes from USW were either squandered or just wide of the mark, but one fantastic double save from Cardiff goalkeeper Izzy Marin saved the blushes of a shaky looking defence.
A solid save from Havard from Sian Sniman helped keep the Cardiff lead down to 1-0, and then the visitors were unable to take advantage of a series of attacks with USW reacting well to the threats.
Neither side were able to create much in the first half with reckless fouls, balls going out of play and a number of free-hits that came to nothing.
The stand-out player for USW in the first half was Havard who saved a number of shots and made sure that USW did not go in at half-time trailing heavily. The key player in the first half of play for Cardiff was Ella Godwin who was able to grab herself a goal and remain a threatening attacking presence in the final third.
The start of the second half saw Cardiff attacking from the beginning with Millie Dawson being the playmaking presence causing USW the most issues.
More squandered chances from Sniman in the second half left USW thankful, but they couldn’t prevent the away side doubling their advantage.
Lexi Clark was the scorer of the second goal after a free hit was not cleared properly and fell perfectly for her to calmly tuck it home.
USW did create a couple of chances and were more of a match for their opponents in the first half.
However, a dominant performance from Cardiff in the second half left no doubt in who the victors deserved to be.