Kovin Moodley, the Bermuda women’s hockey team coach has lamented his team’s missed opportunity to pick up three points after they lost their opening match to Barbados at the Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

Bermuda started their campaign with a 3-2 defeat to Barbados, one of teams they targeted to beat in Pool B, with coach Moodley’s attributing the concession of a goal within two minutes to performance anxiety.

“It was great opportunity for us to put a stamp on our pool,’’ said Moodley.

“We started the game in good spirits, feeling like we could execute the game plan and get a win over Barbados. As the game started, the girls were a bit nervous from the occasion and a bit of a gift for Barbados in the second minute resulted in them going a goal up but we managed to equalise immediately a minute later.”

Bermuda failed to capitalise on a penalty corner just before half-time, with confusion leading to the set piece not being taken. Moodley feels that could have changed things for his team, but he praised his players for a courageous fight in the last quarter of the gam..

“In the last 15 minutes, our fitness has let us down in the past, but the girls actually stepped up quite significantly and really took the game to Barbados,’’ Moodley said.

“They stepped on the gas, put themselves on the front foot and started dominating quite a lot in that last quarter. Barbados tried to employ a couple of stalling tactics, trying to slow the game down, but we managed to score a goal in the very last minute of the game.”

Bermuda next take on the Dominican Republic on Thursday and then clash with Puerto Rico on Saturday. Dominican Republic fought from a goal down to overpower Puerto Rico 2-1 on Tuesday and Moodley acknowledges they will not be easy opponents to face.

“It was just an opportunity for us to get a better result. We look forward to the Dominican Republic,’’ stated the coach.

“They're quite a strong team with very strong quality players and our final pool game will be against Puerto Rico, so hopefully over the next two games we can get two wins and if we do that, we still are able to achieve what we wanted and get a top-four finish.”