In 2005, New Zealand sent its first women’s national team to the IFWLA World Cup, finishing in 10th place in its debut. The program then dropped to 12th in 2009 and advanced to 11th in 2013.

With its young history, the country decided to develop a high performance track that involved tours to the United States to improve its play at the 2017 FIL Rathbones Women’s World Cup in Guildford, England.

With a 4-0 record, outscoring its opponents 61-11 combined, featuring an upset victory over the Haudenosaunee, which placed seventh in 2013, New Zealand advanced to the championship bracket and will finish in the top eight for the first time in program history thanks to the experience they gained in North America.

“We made a quite different change to the program this time around,” said New Zealand coach Kari Jones. “People started to believe that it was possible to really jump in the world rankings as we started to do a lot better against West Coast college teams. That was really huge for our program.”

During the fall of 2015 and 2016, the Kiwis played Cal, Fresno State, Stanford, St. Mary’s, UC Davis and USC. The first tour was mostly unsuccessful, but vast improvements were made the following year and it was evident in their play.

According to their team blog, the Kiwis finished their 2016 West Coast tour “proud, but not satisfied.” Also on the game schedule were club teams like Bear Lax in California.

The Kiwis lost to Bear Lax while still adjusting to the time difference having just arrived off their flight, but then defeated Cal. Two more losses followed to UC Davis and Stanford, the latter’s score being 14-1, which was a drastic improvement since its 33-0 loss in 2015.

“New Zealand clearly wanted to prepare to play at a high speed,” said Stanford coach Amy Bokker, who is also a U.S. assistant. “I think coming and play various college teams allowed them to learn the type of speed they will face in the World Cup.”

With just two more games left in its 2016 fall tour, New Zealand recorded one loss and one win, to Fresno State and over St. Mary's, respectively, but overall, the wins built confidence and momentum. 

“There’s a huge role psychologically about being competitive – that you can win games against teams that you really hold in a very high regard,” Jones said. “That’s really important for us to start believing in going far in this particular tournament. We have to find that belief somewhere and I think that second tour to California really helped us develop that belief.”

In June 2016, New Zealand traveled to Australia for an exhibition and realized they were still behind other countries. Therefore, the high performance track required its players to not only follow a strict strength and conditioning program, but also log hours that they practiced stick work.

“Our girls were kept to certain standards, which is probably very typical for a college program, but certainly wasn’t typical for us,” Jones said. “This wasn’t optional. The stick work side of the program is just as important as the strength and conditioning.”

Prior to flying to England, New Zealand scheduled one last stop in the U.S., playing games against club teams Heroes and M&D in Maryland, as well as the All-Star team at the Grind, a club tournament run by Michele DeJuliis, a U.S. gold medalist and Hall of Famer.

“I believe they won in the last few seconds, so the entire game was a battle,” DeJuliis said. “New Zealand has highly committed kids giving it their best. It was great to see.”

The New Zealand roster features leaders like captain Sian Keys, who is in her second World Cup with the Kiwis after playing two with Wales, Sarah Butler, current Longwood assistant, and Victoria Lelo, a Division II All-American from McKendree.

With a blend of talent from experienced college players to newcomers who witnessed the American style of play in the fall, New Zealand is poised to take on Canada in its quarterfinal matchup this afternoon.

“This will be the first time we have the opportunity to play Canada, so I think we’re just really looking forward to a great opportunity to learn … [and] take a lot of small success across the whole game,” Jones said.