‘We're there’ - YMP into premier grand final

CENTRES OF ATTENTION: YMP Sunshine Brewery centre Ata Mangu is chased by Taste One HSOG counterpart Katie Kirkpatrick in last night’s top-four 1 v 2 premier grade semifinal at the YMCA. YMP won 44-41 to advance to the grand final. Picture by Paul Rickard

YMP booked a place in the Pak’nSave premier netball final last night with a hard-fought three-goal victory over High School Old Girls at the YMCA.

The defending champions led all the way in front of a good-sized crowd but the score was extremely close throughout.

YMP Sunshine Brewery led 12-10 after 15 minutes, 21-18 by halftime, 32-30 at three-quarter time, and 44-41 at the fulltime whistle,

An ecstatic YMP coach Ingrid Brown summed it up simply: “We’re there. I’m happy for the team and happy we’ve moved on to the next stage.”

“It was another very close, evenly-contested game between our two top teams,” netball commentator Sherrill Beale said of the 1 v 2 non-elimination clash

YMP advanced to the August 18 grand final while Taste One HSOG have an August 15 knockout against the winners of this Saturday’s 3 v 4 semifinal between Whangara Old Girls 1 and Claydens Waikohu.

“It was a very good game,” Beale said of last night. “High School Old Girls had their chances but under pressure they were not able to forge ahead.”

Beale said there were some great combinations and match-ups.

“YMP shooters Paku-Jane Skudder and Kellann Kemp worked well together for the whole hour. There was some slick passing between them, they moved around nicely in the circle to give their feeders better opportunities to get their passes in and finished off with some good shooting,” Beale said.

“Both centres had good games. Ata Mangu for YMP and HSOG’s Katie Kirkpatrick tracked each other for the full hour, collecting intercepts and tips, chasing down loose ball and delivering good ball into the shooters.

“HSOG’s Sarah Cox came on at goal defence in the third quarter and combined well with Alex Sinclair at goal keep.

“They went out hunting the ball and collected several intercepts. Kelly Swann-Ferris moved from goal defence to wing defence in the third quarter and the three defenders worked well together.”

YMP defenders Raiha Campbell and Bronya McMenamin pressured HSOG’s shooters and made them work for every goal.”

That pressure told in the final period when they missed five key attempts that could have altered the outcome of the game.

HSOG coach Tanya Owen said her team were gutted by the outcome “but we live to fight another day”.

“I thought our defence worked tirelessly as a unit. They forced errors, created intercepts and got lots of ball. We just didn’t capitalise on those turnovers.”

Owen praised the midcourt —particularly their player of the day Kirkpatrick — who she said made great connections with their shooters.

“The girls do not want to feel gutted like that again, so we have to shift our focus to the next semifinal.”

YMP captain Skudder was rapt.

“I thought our defence was magnificent and at the shooting end, I felt the whole team had my back.”

In the bottom-three semi last night, Gisborne Girls’ High Senior A accounted for Horouta Gold 56-32.

The students were in control throughout — 13-7, 27-14 and 43-24 up through the quarter breaks.

Horouta take on Lytton Senior A in the second bottom-three semi-final on Saturday.