New Zealand's Cathryn Finlayson's quick goal in the opening Group B match at the London Olympics broke the team's jinx of not winning a match against the Australian hockey team for the first time in the history of the Olympics.
Finlayson's first goal and only goal score in the third minute of the game led her team towards 1-0 victory against the Australian women's team.
Exploiting the defensive follies of the rival team, Finlayson swept home a penalty corner rebound from the Black Stick's first attack. Following the score, the New Zealand team continued to press the opponents in a bid to dominate possession. Meanwhile, Australia scored better chances to at least level the scores by half-time. The team's efforts to get a higher score on the board sadly ended in failure.
Georgia Nanscawen could have equalised from four yards at the far post but allowed the ball to hit her foot before she hit home.
In the 14th minute of the game, Australia's Megan Rivers smashed a shot against goalkeeper Bianca Russell's right hand post, but the ball rebounded across face of goal and out for a sideline hit.
Australia did not win their first penalty corner until seven minutes before the break but Anna Flanagan's low drag flick was saved low to her right by Russell.
Early in the second half, New Zealand's Charlotte Harrison and Gemma Flynn both had efforts saved by Toni Cronk, but as they sat back to break on the counter-attack Australia began to press for the equaliser.
Both teams lost players to the sin-bin but neither could make use of their numerical advantage and even the Hockeyroo's decision late on to replace Cronk with a kicking-back failed to pay off as New Zealand hung on to win the opening game of the tournament.
Now Australia must beat number two ranked Argentina and number three ranked Germany, if they want to continue their proceedings to the semi-finals.
