Lady Panthers’ misery in round two of the Cook Islands women’s rugby league 13s competition continues after the side went down to neighbours Lady Eels.

In the lone match of the week, a resurgent Lady Eels upset Lady Panthers 18-14 at Victoria Park on Thursday.

The loss to the visiting Eels is a major blow to table toppers Panthers who went down to Lady Bears 24-10 in their first loss of the season last week.

Both the Bears and the Eels lost to Lady Panthers in round one.

Lady Eels who managed just a win from their three matches in round one made a strong start in round two beating defending champions Lady Bulldogs 24-8 last week before upsetting the Panthers on Thursday.

Lady Panthers co-captain Rima Browne said the Eels capitalised on “too many mistakes” committed by her side.

“Despite missing key players, we saw a number of girls step up for the team including playing more minutes than they usually would. This is a positive for us as it shows development in our players, especially our new girls. In the end Avatiu were more hungry,” Browne said.

Cook Islands News yesterday contacted Lady Eels for comments on their big win.

The Eels assistant coach Sunielia Tom earlier said they were wary of the challenge the Panthers pose in their bid to gain the top two spot in the competition.

“Regardless of their loss last week, they would still come back a lot stronger and obviously wanting to defeat us,” Tom said on Wednesday.

“As a team we need to uplift and stay positive. We need to work on what we emphasised during our training, that is, our game structure and game plan and if we follow them through, we will stand a good chance of beating the Panthers.

“We are a strong team but we are aware the Panthers and the Bears have a lot of experience in their side as well. However we feel that we stand a good chance of top three finish and the aim is obviously to get wins against the top two sides.”

The domestic 13s competition will resume next weekend.