HOCKEY: Isca University head to Swansea on Saturday seeking to cause an upset and regain a top three spot in Investec Women’s League Conference West.

Isca travel to Wales buoyed by a 3-1 win at Staines last time out, following a 2-1 defeat at Gloucester City.

City – last season’s West Clubs Women’s League champions – followed up with a 3-1 Sunday win at Barnes Hounslow Ealing to edge a point above Isca in the top four with five games remaining.

Third-placed Gloucester’s next match is at eighth-placed Exe, reeling from back-to-back 2-0 defeats by Southampton’s Trojans and Bristol-based Firebrands.

Exe – beaten 4-1 at Gloucester in October last year – will be aiming to get back on track after a six-match losing sequence which has put them level on points with second-from-bottom Staines.

Heidi Baber scored Isca’s 58th-minute goal at Gloucester, where Emma Done converted a 14th-minute penalty stroke and Laura Bevan scored from open play in the 25th minute to put City 2-0 up at half-time.

Isca returned to winning ways at Staines, where top scorer Claire Thomas struck in the 15th and 43rd minutes to take her season’s league tally to 15 goals.

Beth Wild reduced the deficit from a 52nd-minute penalty corner before Amy Sheehan smashed in her sixth of the season six minutes later.

University of Exeter visit Hampstead and Westminster on Sunday with their sights set on closing the gap on their hosts in the EHL Men’s Premier Division.

The students start the weekend at the foot of the top flight – nine points behind seventh placed Hampstead – with six games remaining. They are just three points behind second-from-bottom Bowdon and five points from safety and eighth-placed Southgate.

Southgate have a match in hand on Exeter but edged five points clear of the university side after last Sunday’s 5-3 home win over Hampstead.

Sunday’s trip to Hampstead is Exeter’s penultimate away game. They next visit second-placed East Grinstead on Saturday, March 3, before a run of four crucial home games next month against Cannock (March 4), Southgate, Surbiton and Loughborough Students.

University of Exeter’s A team remain top of the men’s Davis Wood League after a 7-0 win over their B team and goals for Ed Carson (three), Daf Bury, Josh Godfrey, Simon Tyson and Matthew Laidman.

Simon Fenwick also hit the hat-trick trail, with four goals for Plymouth Marjon as they beat Taunton 5-2.