PEGASUS' dreams of a historic Sharwood's Irish Senior Cup three-in-a-row were ended in Belfast on Saturday as Old Alexandra created the upset of the season by beating the cup holders in a penalty-stroke shootout.

Simon Filgas and his Old Alexandra players were just about the only people who seemed to believe that their team had a chance of beating Pegasus on their own ground after the 2-2 draw between the teams in Dublin a week ago.

Trish Conway gave the visitors the lead four minutes into the second half and they were within three minutes of victory in normal time when Kim Mills snatched an equaliser for Pegasus from a short corner.

A penalty-stroke shootout followed a scoreless period of extra time and when Pegasus missed three of their five attempts, Old Alexandra were through to the semi-finals, where they will meet Hermes.

An outstanding result was Muckross coach Ian Steepe's verdict on Old Alexandra's victory. The same verdict could be passed on his team's 3-0 win against Hermes in a crucial league match at Belfield.

Hermes went in to the match knowing a win was vital if they were to boost their prospects of succeeding Muckross as Leinster champions but, after a scoreless first half, goals from Mary Logue, Ciara McGrath and captain Teresa Hurley now leave them with a seven-point gap to bridge in their eight remaining games.

"That was a battle," said Steepe after the game. "I think the score may be a little flattering, but our defence was tremendous and that, for me, was the most important thing to come out of the game."

"They threw everything at us, but we just about held them. There were some very good one-against-one duels, especially the one between Clodagh Greeley and Jenny Burke. Clodagh's quite a player to watch now - she's getting better almost by the week," said Steepe of the impressive Muckross defender.

Hermes, for whom defender Sinead McDonnell and goalkeeper Tara Browne were outstanding, were left deflated at full time, but Steepe offered them some words of encouragement. "That's a very good Hermes side, a very compact team. They've got Jenny who's a match winner, a very good goalkeeper in Tara Browne, they have Daphne Sixsmith, Caitriona Carey - they're not far short of being a very good team."

Meanwhile, Loreto kept up the pressure on Muckross by beating Maids 2-0, with goals from Emma Walkin and Caitriona O'Kelly, and remain just three points off the lead.