They played more than 2000 kilometres apart, but the Canberra Lakers and Strikers suffered the same fate on the opening day of the Australian Hockey League.
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Queensland claimed the honours in both the men's and women's encounters, the Scorchers beating the Lakers 4-3 in Adelaide and recording a 4-2 victory over the Strikers in Brisbane.
Both Canberra teams face the prospect of needing to win their two remaining pool games to emulate last year's performance of reaching the semi-finals.
The Lakers take on South Australia on Sunday (6pm AEDT) and Tasmania on Tuesday (2pm), while the Strikers must contend with the Northern Territory on Sunday (2.30pm) and Victoria on Tuesday (2.30pm).
It was an opportunity missed for the Lakers, who faced a Queensland team missing several of its experienced international stars including Jamie Dwyer and Liam de Young.
The Lakers had a golden chance to go ahead 4-2 with 10 minutes left in the game to give coach Andrew Deane plenty of confidence for the rest of the tournament.
"I thought we certainly did enough to get a point, but as quite often happens for us, a couple of pretty average umpiring decisions didn't go our way," Deane said.
"The pleasing thing was it was a good effort from the whole squad.
"The positive is we played pretty well and we've got to win our next two to get through to the semi-final stage."
Meanwhile, the Strikers were behind early before Meredith Bone scored from a penalty corner to get the team back on level terms.
However, the Scorchers took control to stretch out to a 3-1 lead before Laura Gray found the back of the net to reduce the deficit to a solitary goal.
The hosts then scored from a corner after the full time siren to put the icing on the cake of an impressive performance.
Strikers coach Steph Andrews said her side needed to be more efficient in front of goal after converting just one of its five corners, while the Scorchers were a perfect four from four.
"We weren't on target today, unfortunately," Andrews said.
"Defensively we were outstanding, but we gave away too many corners.
"Getting a win today would've been good, but we've got to get up tomorrow and then play well again on Tuesday."
Australian Hockey League: Men: Queensland Scorchers 4 bt Canberra Lakers 3 (Glenn Turner, Matt Hotchkis, Aaron Kershaw) in Adelaide. Women: Queensland Scorchers 4 bt Canberra Strikers 2 (Meredith Bone, Laura Gray) in Brisbane.
