2nd VII v Mount St Marys Won 21-9

Players of the Match

Ella N; played her best match to date, sticking to instructions, which paid dividends in the match situation.

Arabella A; really added to the fluid play in the centre court and effectively marked her player out of the game.

Summary

We have come to expect poor weather for our matches and today was no exception with torrential rain. However we played on and once the courts had been swept for water, we launched into an excellent team performance, building on our success against Terra Nova, mid week.

In the first quarter the score was 4-3 to S.A. We played well, but the cold plus wet conditions required team adjustment and new strategies. Luckily we had worked on driving forward for the ball and this strategy became crucial in our play.

By half time our lead increased. The short, sharp passing to accompany the drive forward worked well and there was a really good connection between defence, centre court of Ella N, Jessica RS and Arabella A, with our attack. Jess RS, as in the last game, worked tirelessly and she continued to look for those long balls into Lucy.

By three quarters time our lead again increased. Erin S was able to feed some sound balls to Lucy R, whose shooting was absolutely spot-on. If the shot didn’t go in first time, both Erin S and Lucy R fought for the rebound and nine times out of ten they won back the ball, shot and scored.

In the final quarter the girls continued to work tirelessly, and now feeling comfortable with the adverse conditions, they continued to pull away with a fantastic full time score. The defensive pairing of Roxanne B and Alice S (who had earlier played GA) were very effective and made a lot of interceptions and they also fought hard to win back any rebounds.

Overall, it was a very pleasing team performance and score. The team is now more structured and the court play is more fluid. We can still work on the drive, but the short, sharp passing strategy is really working well and is good for our team as the average height is not as tall as some teams.

Thanks for all the spectators who braved the weather. I hope you were as pleased as me with what you saw today.

AJW