Heartbreak turned to joy for the Bermuda women’s hockey team late on Sunday night after they were told they had qualified for the Central American and Caribbean Games.

With Mexico having already secured a spot in the CAC tournament, Bermuda head coach Kovin Moodley was informed before the competition that two places were available, with the winner of the bronze-medal match also getting the chance to compete in Dominican Republic next year.

Bermuda lost that play-off for third place 1-0 to Puerto Rico and thought that their hopes of reaching the Games had been dashed, but Moodley was later informed by a Pan American Hockey Federation official that the national team had made it through as a result of changes made to the qualifying criteria.

“As we were trying to reconnect with the group after the loss and have our final say, a lady from the federation came over to tell us that even though we had finished fourth we still qualified for the CAC Games,” Moodley said.

“As a coach I ask these questions before the tournament and we were given quite clear guidelines but certain things must have happened behind the scenes. That is why we set a target of top four as that gave us an opportunity if a team drops out to be in a good position to be the next team in.

“We set two targets and they were to win two group games and finish top four and we managed to achieve both of them, so that is what has opened the door for qualification given whatever was happening behind the scenes.”

With a number of established players unable to join the women’s squad, Moodley was pleased with the attitude displayed by the team as they played six matches in eight days.

“I commend the group of ladies who put themselves up for selection,” Moodley said.

“It was a tough time of year and a lot of people were not available so our selection pool was actually quite small. The level of sacrifice by this group was tremendous and the level of hockey was watered down a bit as some of the regulars aren’t available.

“But the commitment to the process and the culture of the national programme is to be seen as a team of service to the hockey federation. We try to represent Bermuda in a positive way and we’ve had so many compliments from other nations about the way that we played.”

Moodley is intent on learning from the tournament and has identified fitness and goalscoring as key objectives for the men’s and women’s teams.

“There will always be something that we have to try to unpack and figure out but development of a natural goalscorer is something that we have to work on,” Moodley said.

“Fitness is just something sport will never take away from you. I hope we can work on that element of the game as that unlocks everything else.”

Moodley is also keen to show his appreciation for the men’s team as they won their play-off game on penalties after drawing 2-2 with Panama in regulation time.

“We dominated that game,” Moodley said.

“Panama play a certain style of play that is quite direct. They have to because they don’t have the technical capacity to move the ball in the same way that we do. We came off a win the previous day so our spirits were quite high but that can also leave you vulnerable because they had everything to play for on the final day.

“Fair play to them for getting the game back and putting us under pressure in the 60 minutes, but I need to highlight our goalkeeper Justin Dill. It’s a coin toss as to which way it goes but for us to show the courage and the temperament for the lads who took a penalty and for Justin to be such an iconic goalkeeper and make the saves was amazing to see.”