1st Triangular vs Lancing & Bede's
This was the second last match for the U18A team, and Izzy's last match, so we wanted to make it a good one. We were playing Lancing first. They went up by 5 goals in the first few minutes, we were getting the ball down to our end but were a little bit shaky with converting to goal, however I knew they could turn it around. We shook off the cobwebs and got our act together, the goals started coming in and we bought it back to get to 3 within Lancing. 6-3 to them at the end of the first. We talked about how we needed to turn the ball over to try and bring it back and they did just that. Everyone put on the pressure in defence and we made enough turnovers to go 1 goal up, 8-7 to us second quarter. We then had our best quarter yet, everything flowed, we were driving forwards for the ball, being steady on turnovers and our shooters were working together nicely and getting all the shots in, 16-11 up after the 3rd. We sometimes play 'stressball' when we have a lead and we did this in the 4th quarter, it was sloppy at times and Lancing were bringing it back. I started to worry but no need as we held our lead and won 21-17 in the end. A great, close game that showed you can turn any game around.
The Bede's match was also closely fought, we were a bit tired from the previous match so we went a bit flat. We still managed to get an early lead 6-4 at the end of the 1st. We told ourselves to wake up and start talking more on court and needing to turn over. Bede's were fresh legged so we couldn't just sit back and expect to win. They had tall accurate shooters and were getting everything in, but Amelia was doing her usual amazing feeds into Erin/Alice right under the post and we were keeping up, 11-9 to us end of the 2nd. We then spoke about needing to be assertive in defence and really putting the pressure on. Elodie had a big impact in this third and was intercepting all over the place, she helped us get a good lead for sure, 17-12 up. Solari and Lila were also great in the defensive circle, getting hands on every ball in and marking tight on to pressure them. We carried this on in the last quarter, Izzy was doing some great circle edge feeds into the shooters and just popping them into the right space, they couldn't stop us! Final score 25-18 to us. What a great day of netball, another proud coach moment, isn't this team incredible!
POM (Lancing match): Erin
POM (Bede's match): Amelia
Coache's player (Lancing match): Solari - great timing on her interceptions and body on body marking the GA
Coache's player (Bede's match): Maria - for great drives forward into space and always marking their player tight and often getting turnovers