University of Canberra has inflicted the first loss on the Tuggeranong Vikings this season in the women's Capital League with a 2-0 victory at the National Hockey Centre on Sunday.
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UC made the most of its opportunities in front of goal with Penny Slater and Toni Hennessy scoring in the tightly contested match to press its claims for a spot in the top four.
Vikings have been the benchmark of the competition this season, but eventually paid the price for having several of its stars unavailable.
For the third straight week, Vikings were without four representative players who were on duty with the ACT team at the national under-21 championships in Perth.
Vikings coach Jason Toole said the absence of those players wasn't an excuse and that he was proud of the performance of a team with an average age of 16.
"We had a very young team today and it's going to be a learning curve for them at this level,'' Toole said.
"I was really happy with the effort they produced.
"We had our opportunities to get on the scoreboard, but UC were good enough to convert on the chances they had.''
Vikings were also without former Hockeyroo Peta MacKinnon after her father passed away.
Toole is confident Vikings will be able to bounce back and remain a contender for the premiership once his side returns to full strength.
In Sunday's other games in the women's Capital League, Central proved too strong for Old Canberrans with a 4-1 win and St Pat's drew with ANU 2-2.
In the men's competition on Saturday, Central easily accounted for Old Canberrans 7-2, St Pats defeated United 3-1, Wests hammered Tuggeranong Valley 6-0 and Goulburn recorded a 3-2 win in Albury.
