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SA women take series lead

Johannesburg - The South Africa women's hockey team broke a five-match drought against Scotland to win the second Test 2-1 in Glasgow on Monday after leading 1-0 at half-time.

With the victory, the South Africans took a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series after the first match was drawn 2-2 on Sunday.

The second Test was a much more convincing performance, as SA captain Marsha Marescia had predicted before the match.

South Africa went into the break 1-0 up after striker Sulette Damons buried a penalty corner rebound off in-form goalkeeper Amy Gibson's pads in the 23rd minute.

This after Shelley Russell had initially opened up some space for Damons to win the team’s sixth penalty corner.

Scotland's best chance to score was on the counter-attack, and three minutes after half-time they equalised through Sam Judge with their first shot of the match.

The winner came from Jen Wilson in the 55th minute when a Damons pass gave the South African forward the time and space to pick her spot.

South Africa were all over the Scots in the first half and earned six penalty corners to none as well as a series of goalscoring opportunities from field play as they peppered the opposition goalmouth with numerous attacks.

The hosts defended with determination, though, and Gibson pulled off a number of great saves.

The second half saw Scotland get a bit more of the ball, but the determined tourists played through the fatigue in tough conditions to end a string of two defeats and three draws against the Scots in their previous five meetings.

South Africa were missing world record goalscorer Pietie Coetzee and fellow Olympian Kate Woods, who were scheduled to join the team later in the week, as well as striker Lauren Penny (shoulder injury).

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