Australia held steady in a sudden-death penalty shootout to beat New Zealand 5-4 in the Oceania Cup women's hockey final in Stratford on Sunday.
With the scores tied 2-2 at fulltime, and 3-3 from penalties, captain Madonna Blyth and Kellie White slotted home for the Hockeyroos in the sudden-death phase.
But while Black Sticks captain Kayla Sharland converted her chance, Aussie keeper Rachael Lynch smothered Sam Charlton's shot on goal to secure the win.
Australia took only five minutes to open the scoring, Jordyn Holzberger tapping in after a strong run down the left by Anna Flanagan in her 100th game for the Hockeyroos.
Rookie 19-year-old striker Sophie Cocks, who scored the winning goal in New Zealand's 3-2 pool win over Australia earlier in the week, slotted home the equaliser 18 minutes out from halftime.
With the scores tied 1-1 at the break, Sharland swept home from a sweetly executed penalty corner to give them the lead midway through the second spell.
But the vastly experienced Blyth hauled Australia back into the game, pouncing on a loose ball in the circle with nine minutes to go to level the scores.
Afterwards, the Aussie skipper said the Hockeyroos' hard work on individual skills had paid off.
"We actually put a lot of hard work into making sure we're very skilled at the one-on-ones, and our goalkeeper's brilliant," she said.
"The girls did their job and we're happy to come over here and get the win - it's hard against such a great team at home."
A downcast Sharland said the result left the Black Sticks with plenty to work on ahead of the world league finals in Argentina later this month.
"We're pretty disappointed. I thought we got in behind them quite a lot; we just didn't take our chances well.
"We're still working on things and, at times, I think we were just a little relaxed in phases and that's when they jumped on us," Sharland said.
"We've just got to get our structures right and be focused for 100 per cent of the game."
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