They finished the game with champagne, but St Patrick's spoiled the part as they completed a first-grade double to rain on Goulburn's hockey parade.
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Almost 1000 fans were jammed in to watch Goulburn's first match in the women's premier Hockey ACT division on Saturday.
But their cheers turned to heartbreak when defending champions St Patrick's scored an after-the-siren goal to snatch a 3-2 triumph.
The tough results continued when the Goulburn men's team was beaten 5-3, but not even two defeats could dampen the party with both Goulburn teams finally part of the Capital league.
"The other coaches got an Esky and we took the girls away to tell them how well they went and they should be proud of themselves," women's coach Des White said.
"We opened up a couple of bottles of champagne and spread it around ... it was a fantastic day.
"There were close to 1000 people there, they were packed in. It was amazing to see and great for hockey in Goulburn."
The Goulburn men's team lost the grand final in its inaugural season last year, prompting the women's team to aim for a spot this year.
White, whose daughter Kellie plays for the Australian Kookaburras, said the tight loss against the two-time defending premiers would give the team confidence it can match it with the best.
St Patrick's striker Naomi Evens proved the chief destroyer as Goulburn went within seconds of starting with a bang.
Evans, the McKay Medal winner as the competition's best and fairest last year, scored a hat-trick, including converting a penalty corner after the siren to lift St Patrick's to a one-goal win.
Central scored the biggest whitewash of the opening round, smashing United 11-0 while ANU went on a second-half blitz in the battle of the students to beat the University of Canberra 7-1 at Lyneham on Sunday.
Kazziah Plumb and Amy Arnott both scored hat-tricks after a breaking the shackles of a 0-0 deadlock at half-time.
University of Canberra coach Andrew Bewick conceded his side wasn't up to competition standard for the first round of the season.
"We've got a bit of work to do, we had five players out and we were under-strength, but that's no excuse for the way we played," Bewick said.
"We'll settle down a bit as we go into the year. The girls tried to guts it out and we got the last goal of the game. Clearly we've got a lot of things to sort out, but it's only early in the season."
In the men's competition, powerhouse Central continued its unbeaten start to the season with a tight 4-3 win against United.
Central is unbeaten after four games, scoring 24 goals and conceding just 11 as it aims for a seventh title in eight years.
AT A GLANCE
Women's: ST PATRICK'S 3 (Naomi Evans 3) bt GOULBURN 2 (Chloe Montgomery 2), UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA 7 bt ANU 1, TUGGERANONG VIKINGS 6 bt ALBURY 2, CENTRAL 11 bt UNITED 0.
Men's: CENTRAL 4 bt UNITED 3, ST PATRICK'S 5 bt GOULBURN 3, WESTS 4 bt OLD CANBERRANS 3
