The intensity of Round 1 well and truly rolled over into Round 2 with plenty of tight games.
Championship:
North East Blaze (61) defeated Boroondara Express (50)
Melbourne University Lightning (50) defeated Hawks Netball (48)
Ariels (47) defeated by Casey Demons (59)
Wilson Southern Storage Saints (57) defeated Peninsula Waves (47)
It was a pulsating finish to the Championship game between Melbourne University Lightning and Hawks Netball, with the Lightning scraping over the line by two goals. The frantic pace kicked up a notch in the final term while both sides dug deep to try and outsmart one another.
The lead ebbed and flowed throughout the match with only a few goals separating each other at the breaks, highlighting the high level of intensity from both sides.
With Kaylia Stanton holding sway down in attack for the Hawks, the Lightning midcourt of Jordan Cransberg and Kelsie Rainbow shifted into defence mode to try and reduce her impact under the post.
Lightning captain, Maddy Stewart was a strong competitor throughout the course of the game with the wing defence highlighting just how gruelling the game was.
“Absolutely knackered, I think it was mentally and physically tiring down to that last literal minute. I’m exhausted but really happy and really proud that we were able to grind out the game,” she said.
Stewart credited the shift in momentum to the injection of young up and coming star Dayna Williams who provided a spark in defence.
“I think it’s just those one percenters, when you see someone do something out on court it just really lifts you. In that last quarter we had young Dayna come on from 19s and she gave us a bit more life down there. The way she was attacking the ball really just gave us the momentum that allowed us to really contest.”
The defensive midcourter took plenty of positives away from the win, crediting the Lightning’s desperation and grit to run the game out on an empty tank.
“I think sometimes in games like that in the past, we have gone into our shells, and we’ve gotten down on ourselves. I think we really dug in and we all knew our roles out on that court - we all brought something new to that last quarter and we were just able to grind it out to the end,” she said.
Looking ahead to next week, Lightning are preparing to take on the Wilson Storage Southern Saints, who according to Stewart operate off a very similar structure – one her side will be hoping to combat.
“We knew that the Hawks had some really strong and dominant players, so I think we’ve had two very different games heading into Round 3. Coming up against Saints next week, we had a good practice match against them a couple of weeks ago, we know they’re going to have a big, tall dominant shooter in Emily Andrew who trains with the Vixens.”
