“They like to move the ball at speed, so the students will need everyone working together to stop their flow.”
Girls’ High pushed YMP Sunshine Brewery hard in the first half of their match last week, but then fell away in the second period.
“It’s still an early stage of the competition, and for pretty much a brand new team I am very happy with how they are tracking at this stage,” said Girls’ High coach Irene Takao.
“I firmly believe this team has some good bones to it.
“They have shown a bit of tenacity against more experienced teams and I cannot ask for more at this stage.”
Takao said their skill level was developing nicely and they were finding their connections better every time they went out on court.
“Tomorrow against HSOG we will stick to the strategies that we are working on.
“I know the girls will give it their best shot. They will not bow down to anybody.”
HSOG coach Tanya Owen said she expected the students to come at them.
“Girls’ High have been improving every week and we will not be taking them lightly,” Owen said.
The match gets under way at 9am.
The 11am encounter pits Waikohu against Ritana.
“It was a close game last time these two met,” Beale said.
“But Waikohu played well as a team on Wednesday night in the way they went about beating Horouta Gold.
“Ritana will need to bring their top game and all work together for the full hour if they want to take this win,” Beale said.
Lytton coach Claire Campbell said her girls learned a lot from their loss to HSOG last weekend.
“We have practised this week on different areas that we needed to strengthen, like building better connections and understanding on the court.
“I am looking forward to them applying that training against the very good Waikohu team.”
All other grades will be back on the courts tomorrow — seniors, secondary, intermediate and primary, from 8.45am to 3pm.
