Ireland's shootout defeat to New Zealand in the FIH Women's Nations Cup final on Sunday was "gutting" but the consistency the team found throughout the tournament in Chile was one of the positive takeaways, according to captain Sarah Hawkshaw.
The Irish team won all three of their pool games against Scotland, New Zealand and South Korea, before reaching the decider in Santiago following a semi-final victory over USA.
The final hurdle, a reunion with New Zealand, proved insurmountable however, despite a late equalising goal by Katie Mullan which forced a shootout, as the Black Sticks overcame Ireland on penalties and gained promotion to the 2025–26 Women's FIH Pro League, the top tier of world hockey.
Hawkshaw, who succeeded Mullan as Ireland captain in December, was one of the scorers in the shootout which New Zealand won 4-2.
"We are very disappointed with the final of the game there," the 29-year-old said.
"We came into this tournament really hammering on about being able to deliver consistent performances and it's something that we really believe we've achieved throughout the tournament.
"To only have conceded two goals in a tournament and then lose out on a shootout in the end, it is gutting.
"And even how the game ended with the amount of chances that we had to score, look we had the opportunities to win it and it just wasn't our day."
But casting an eye ahead to future challenges, Hawkshaw added that lessons would be learned and confidence absorbed from an unprecedented four-game winning run at a tournament - a first under new head coach Gareth Grundie.
"We will take a lot of positives from this game and tournament as a whole. It's showed that we can beat teams ranked above us and we can show consistently how we want to play going forward," she said.
"We have a big year in 2025 with the Europeans which is also a World Cup qualifier.
"We've also had two first caps. Mikayla Power, who ended up getting young player of the tournament, she was absolutely outstanding, won an insane amount of penalty corners and scored with her first touch of her first capped game which is just an incredible story to have. There are so many positives to come of this."
