OLD ALEXANDRA share top spot in the Leinster Senior League with Loreto, but their title ambitions will face their sternest test of "the season to date when they take on champions Muckross at Whitechurch Park tomorrow.

Muckross handed out a 6-0 thrashing to Clontarf last Saturday, but they may need to reproduce that form against the only team to beat them in last season's Leinster League campaign.

Hermes, after their defeat by Old Alexandra last week, will hope to get their campaign back on track when they play Pembroke Wanderers at Serpentine Avenue, while Trinity will try to put their 4-1 drubbing by Loreto behind them when they take on Railway Union at Park Avenue.

Two of the league's struggling teams, Glenanne and Maids, meet at St Mark's Community School in Tallaght.

Meanwhile, the Irish Ladies' Hockey Union has announced three new appointments for the season. Adele Sloan, a physical education teacher at Cookstown High School, will take over as the Irish under 21 coach. Sloan has represented Ireland in both indoor and outdoor hockey, and has coached the Ulster under 16 and under 18 squads.

Michelle Rainey, a geography teacher at Ballyclare High School, who has worked with teams at Queen's University and Stranmillis College, has been appointed as Sloan's assistant.

Finally, Dr Catherine Wilson will take up the position of medical officer to the Irish team for the season, which will climax with the World Cup qualifying tournament in Harare in August. Wilson, a native of Belfast, played for Queen's University and the Irish and British Universities in the 1970s.

The draw for the first round of the Irish Junior Cup has been made the ties will be played on November 16th: UCC II v Lansdowne; University of Limerick v Greenfields II; Kilkenny v Wexford; Larne v Enniscorthy; Pembroke Wanderers v Galway II; Pegasus II v Collegians II; North Kildare v Our Lady's; Omagh v Corinthinans.