Set to be one of the best so far

Tough tasks: Whangara Old Girls centre Taryn Walford takes the ball as Horouta Gold goal keep Nicky Hitaua stays close. Both teams have tough games at the YMCA tomorrow night. Horouta play High School Old Girls at 6pm, and Whangara play YMP at 7.30pm. Picture by Paul Rickard

NETBALL

ONE of the matches of the season so far — that’s the game between High School Old Girls and Whangara Old Girls at the YMCA tomorrow night.

Taste One HSOG have emerged as title contenders after steadily improving in Pak’nSave premier netball this season.

The 7.30pm match-up could well be decided by just a goal or two.

“This will be a close one, I feel,” netball commentator Sherrill Beale said.

“Whangara won by seven goals last time but High School Old Girls have strengthened since then.”

So far in Round 2, HSOG have three wins from three, while Whangara have had two wins and a bonus-point loss.

“Both teams like to play hard, fast netball so expect the game tomorrow night to be very competitive,” Beale said.

HSOG coach Tanya Owen said she wanted her side to stick to their processes.

“Stick to our game plan — that’s the key, and it has been working for us so far.

“The girls have set their own unit goals to work on, and they focus on that, not so much the scoreline,” Owen said.

“We do have a good balance of youth and experience, and it is so nice to see Kelly Swann-Ferris back in the squad at goal defence.

“She has been such a stalwart of HSOG and brings tons of experience.”

Whangara won well against Horouta Gold on Saturday but lost narrowly to Claydens Waikohu last week.

Consistency will be the word for them tomorrow night.

They will step up a notch. Whether that will be enough against HSOG remains to be seen.

The earlier match tomorrow night has a ton of promise, too.

At 6pm, YMP Sunshine Brewery meet Lytton Senior A.

“It was a big win to YMP when these two last met, but Lytton will be more confident after seeing Girls’ High push YMP so hard on Saturday,” Beale said.

YMP won that match by just one goal.

“Lytton beat Girls’ High well two weeks ago, so they will have self-belief,” Beale said.

YMP coach Ingrid Brown said she hoped to have a nearly full line-up for the match.

“We had only seven players on Saturday and that didn’t help us against Girls’ High.”

Tomorrow night they will have their usual shooter, Paku-Jane Skudder, back.

Beale believes it could be a close game.

Lytton lost to a now-more-settled Claydens Waikohu on Saturday but the students had their chances.

But for some extra patience on attack by Lytton, especially when shooting, the outcome could have been different.

As Ingrid Brown put it: “We know we cannot take the students lightly.”