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Blues Hat-Trick
Football Ferns Stars Score Blues Hat-Trick
by Jeremy Ruane
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"You've got the looks, you've got the brains, let's make lots of money!!"
(with apologies to
the Pet Shop Boys)
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Three of the Football Ferns have scored themselves New Zealand Universities Blues in the 2007 awards which will be presented this Friday.
Midfield general Priscilla Duncan and goal-hungry strikers Rebecca Tegg and Zoe Thompson will be recognised at the North Harbour Stadium function, along with 47 other students who successfully combined their academic achievements with sporting prowess in 2007.
NZ Universities Blues have been rare awards for the country's foremost women's footballers in years gone by, with only four players having previously been afforded the honour which is the ultimate recognition of sporting and academic success in this country.
Alison Grant (1983, 1984), Melissa Ruscoe (1996, 1998), Michele Cox (1998, 1999) and Jane Simpson (1999) are the quartet whose efforts in representing their country at the top level while successfully progressing their studies ultimately earned each of them the most prestigious honour in New Zealand academia.
The current upsurge in the Football Ferns' fortunes has presented the country's foremost female footballers with the chance to score this rare honour. In being named as 2007 recipients, FIFA Women's World Cup finalists Duncan, Tegg and Thompson are at the vanguard of a group of young women who are set to make a name for themselves on and off the park in the years to come.
Tegg, incidentally, received an Outstanding Achievement award in the 2006 honours, for her prolific goalscoring efforts with the NZ Universities squad at the 2005 University Games in Izmir, Turkey.
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Priscilla Duncan receiving her University Blue in 2008
  Emma Kete receiving her University Blue in 2008
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