Rivers female hockey team on Thursday defeated their Adamawa counterparts 1-0 in Pool B preliminaries at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.

Oyo State was also in the same pool with Rivers and Adamawa at the festival. The first half of the match which lasted 35 minutes ended goalless, but Rivers scored in the 60th minutes to decide the match.

Coach Collins Iheanyi of Rivers attributed his side's victory to longtime preparation and adequate support from the state government.

"Our victory is tie to good preparation and support from the government during our preparation. The team was camped for four months and we are getting reward for that," he said.

Coach Ibrahim Maiha of Adamawa said that he was pleased with his team's performance because it was nine players against 11, saying his team would have performed well if they were completed.

"Some of our players were screened out because they did not register