The first single match ended in victory for Swansea’s captain Alice Palmer, but in the second her team mate Rui Lin was beaten.

The doubles pairings of Hattie Wade and Penny Scott regained the lead for Swansea before defeat for Izzy O’Hagen and Rebecca Thomas tied the match once again.

Swansea suffered a big blow in the second round of singles matches, when Palmer suffered an injury to her back.

After deciding to play on she was unfortunate to lose the match after an influential first match.

Two more single defeats left Swansea on the edge of defeat with two games remaining.

In the doubles matches, defeat in the penultimate game meant that all Swansea were now playing for was pride.

At that is what was delivered by Thomas and O’Hagen in the final match with a resolute victory over the Cardiff pair.

“Everyone played well, it was just unfortunate that we were not able to draw the competition in the end.” said Palmer.

Swansea University 1sts 3-5 Cardiff University 1sts

Swansea won last year’s meeting 5-3 and hope to repeat the feat this year.

And they have reason to be proud again this year as they built on their promotion with a third place finish.

Captain Alice Palmer believes the tougher games they have played this season will help prepare the team for Varsity.

“Cardiff are in the division above us meaning they will be very tricky opponents,” she said.

“But I see no reason for us to lose.

“The tough games we have had this year will have prepared the team for facing Cardiff.”

Palmer hopes for a strong turn out of fans for the games.

“We are lucky to have a bus this year which hopefully will be full of supporters” she said.

“We are the first sport on but to have as many fans there as possible would be great.”

The match will consist of eight games, four single matches and four doubles matches.

This year’s contest will contrast that of the previous year in which Swansea went into the match as favourites.

Despite a disappointing league campaign this season captain Sam Gorell is hopeful for success.

“It would be huge to get one over on Cardiff at Varsity,” said Gorell.

“Although we go in as underdogs to the game, I am confident we can take the fight to the Cardiff team and win.”

Swansea had a difficult season in the Western 1A league, finishing sixth, which meant relegation after just one year.

But Gorell is looking forward to some increased support this year from the Swansea fans.

He said: “We know we are the first sport on starting at 9.30am, but we need the green and white army to come watch us, having fans behind you makes a huge difference to the result of a match.”

But while captain Becky Gosney was disappointed with the defeat, she took the positives from the team’s cup run.

“This is the furthest a Swansea hockey team has got in the Bucs cup, so we are really proud of that,” said Gosney.

“The early goal made our heads drop a bit. We worked really hard but we had a lot of pressure on our shoulders.”

Southampton took the lead after four minutes, a short corner turned in by Emmie Giles.

And the visitors continued to pressure in the early stages but Swansea’s defence held steady with Gaby Gavins making a string of saves to keep the score 1-0.

A number of infringements from Southampton gave Swansea chances to break but they appeared to lack their previous killer instinct that had got them so high in the league this season.

The first half proved to be a struggle for both teams with both sides finding it difficult to maintain the ball for long periods of time.

At the close of the half Swansea had an excellent opportunity to get back into the game with the umpire awarding a penalty flick after a goal bound effort was denied.

But Swansea failed to score from the spot with Southampton’s keeper blocking the shot.

The second half proved to be just as difficult for the home side, with less efforts on goal.

They did have several chances to capitalise with a series of short corners being awarded to Swansea.

But despite several training ground routines they found it hard to beat the Southampton defensive line.

And they were punished in the last 10 minutes by Southampton, Giles weaving through again to make it 2-0.

Despite a lack of goals to show for it, Gosney believes the team performed much better in the second half.

“The second half was so much better; everyone fought for it,” she added.