Two surprises in a night at the YMCA

Ruby Westrupp (left) and Gisborne Girls’ High School’s Maia Cudd chase the ball as Lauryn Matenga-Houia backs up in a game last year. Westrupp shone for Lytton last night. Picture by Paul Rickard

Gisborne Girls’ High School and Horouta Gold both won their Pak’nSave premier-grade netball games last night — Girls’ High in a canter, Horouta by one goal.

“Two surprises at the YMCA” was how netball commentator Sherrill Beale put it.

“The two bottom-of-the-table teams earned their first wins in this round,” she said.

Girls’ High outplayed Claydens Waikohu to win 50-39.

The students led through the quarter — 12-10, 28-17 and 36-28.

“They played as a team tonight, pressuring Waikohu into making errors,” Beale said.

“Waikohu had some good passages of play, but Girls’ High worked as a team to pressure the ball-carrier throughout the court.

“They made good choices when bringing the ball through court and managed to ‘pop’ out at the right time to collect the pass. It was hard to single out one player as they all worked together.”

Horouta Gold sneaked home 41-40 against Lytton Senior A.

Horouta were up 14-11 after 15 minutes, 28-21 at halftime and 36-27 at three-quartertime.

“Horouta Gold worked well together on attack and defence and were obviously determined to take this win,” Beale said.

“Lytton were more focused in the last quarter and pulled back the nine-goal deficit to level the score at 37-all.

“Ruby Westrupp, at goal defence, collected a couple of timely intercepts, which helped pull the score back, and that seemed to motivate the team further.

“At 37-all, the game could have gone either way.”

On Saturday, YMP Sunshine Brewery play Taste One High School Old Girls in a top-of-the-table clash that could be the premier-grade game of the season so far.