If they can maintain their winning ways in the league between now and March 24th, when they meet in the final game of the Senior A season, Loreto and Hermes will battle it out for their province's league and cup double in the space of a week following the teams' Coca Cola Leinster Senior Cup semi-final victories at Grange Road yesterday.
Loreto beat UCD 4-1 and Hermes were 4-0 winners over Loreto II to set up what should be a fascinating St Patrick's Day showdown between Leinster's top two but both scorelines give the misleading impression that they had a comfortable afternoon's work.
Having conceded a goal, scored by Sarah O'Meara, after just four minutes UCD might have been expected to hoist a white flag but largely through the work of the ever impressive midfield pairing of Jill Kelly and Ciara O'Brien they fought their way back into the game, equalising through Hilda Maguire five minutes before the break.
The goal appeared to unnerve Loreto whose game lost all its fluency in the opening spell of the second half and it was only after the introduction of Mary Barnwell in the 50th minute that they came alive. Two short corner strikes in four minutes (55th and 59th) from Aoife Pomeroy and Barnwell put them 3-1 up before Cathy McKean sealed the win in the 67th minute, following a superb break down the right wing by Elaine Goddard.
Hermes, who were indebted to a second half Jenny Osborne goal on Saturday to give them the narrowest of wins over Trinity in the league, appeared to be missing the absent Caitriona Carey's midfield guile against Loreto II who were still only a goal down after 47 minutes of their semi-final.
Sweeper Bronwyn Donnelly, centre back Orla Smith and midfielder Gillian Dawson led the Loreto II resistance but Hermes have a habit of turning up the heat in the latter stages of games this season. Jenny Burke made it 2-0 on 47 minutes, before two more goals in the final five minutes from Burke again and Aisling Keane, who had opened the scoring in the 15th minute, finally saw off a spirited challenge from the Senior B side.
In Munster, Harlequins dropped their first points of the season to the University of Limerick in a 1-1 draw, while in Ulster Pegasus remained on course for a clean sweep of the season's honours when they advanced to the final of the Ulster Shield, beating Knock 1-0. Irish Senior Cup finalists Ballymoney lost out to Portadown, 1-0, in the second semi-final.
After being ousted at the semi-final stage of last season's competition by Pegasus II, the eventual winners, Three Rock Ladies have made it to this year's final after beating Catholic Institute 2-0 in Saturday's semi-finals. Their opponents in March 3rd's final will be Enniscorthy for whom Kate Donoghue scored twice in a 3-0 win over Ballyclare.
