ACT players push for World Cup spots at the national indoor hockey titles ACT men's captain Matt Hotchkis and ACT women's captain Shelley Watson ready for the National Indoor Hockey Championships in Lyneham. With World Cup places up for grabs, the ACT men's and women's teams will be out to impress at the national indoor hockey championships in Canberra. The under-21 division gets underway at the national hockey centre in Lyneham from Saturday, with the open tournament starting on Thursday. Along with claiming team honours, the other motivation is pushing for spots in the Australian men's and women's team for next year's World Cup in Leipzig, Germany, in January. Seven players from the ACT men's and women's team are in the provisional Australian squads. ACT men's captain Matt Hotchkis, Garry Backus and Malcolm Beer will be hoping to impress selectors but Paul MacKinnon will miss the nationals with osteitis pubis. ACT women's skipper Shelley Watson is aiming for her second straight World Cup after playing in 2011 and is joined in the squad by teammates Jenna Cartwright and Rebecca Sneskov. The ACT women's team is aiming to make the semi-finals after finishing fifth at last year's national titles, while the men lost in the final. "We definitely have higher expectations this time around, especially with the World Cup coming up," Watson said. They named a national squad of 30 for the World Cup from last year's nationals but anyone can get selected even if they're not in the original squad. We missed out on the semi-finals by a point but we're hoping to change that this year. Indoor hockey has some differences to the outdoor version. Four outfield players plus a goalkeeper are on the field at the one time, the pitch is smaller and players aren't allowed to lift the ball unless it is a shot on goal. The ACT men's team has had a disrupted preparation, with Kookaburras striker Glenn Turner going away on his honeymoon and MacKinnnon ruled out with injury. But men's coach Graeme McLennan remained confident the side could again contend for the title after getting pipped at the post by NSW last year. "As every year, we're going there to win and we always put ourselves in the top two teams, us and NSW," McLennan said. We've had a few battles certainly over the last few years and even going back to when I was playing, it was always us and them. The guys know how to play hockey, it's just a bit of structure of how we're going to play. SATURDAY: National Indoor Hockey Championships at the National Hockey Centre, Lyneham. Under-21s: Men: ACT v WA, 1pm. Women: ACT v Victoria, 2pm.