Hawke's Bay netball coach Charissa Barham had every right to be praising her defenders after her team's second win at the Wellington-hosted nationals yesterday.
Goal keep Olivia Macaulay, goal defence Briar Chalmers and Rhiarna Ferris, who had stints at wing defence and goal keep, were again rock solid as HastingsPak'nSave Hawke's Bay beat Thames Valley 45-33.
"They keep improving with every game and that shows a lot about their character," Barham said.
However, again the Bay's shooting statistics could have been better. Barham's shooters succeeded with 65 per cent of their 69 attempts while the Thames Valley shooters succeeded with 75 per cent of their 44 attempts.
Barham said goal shoot Nichola Heremaia, who hasn't had a lot of game time this week, was reliable.
All but one of the Bay's 11 players got game time against Thames Valley. Hawke's Bay led 14-8 after the first quarter and when they won the second 15-6 that was the signal to Barham to slip the collars off her bench players.
Hawke's Bay secured 13 turnovers in the first quarter.
The Bay play Tokoroa in their final game today and a win will see them finish 14th overall in the 17-team event.
Today's final will see North Harbour take on Wellington. In their respective semifinals, North Harbour beat Auckland 56-32 and Wellington pipped Christchurch 43-41.
North Harbour goal shoot Malia Paseka sank 27 of her 35 attempts. Her Auckland counterpart Tera-Maria Amani succeeded with 25 of her 33 attempts.
Impressive North Harbour goal attack Chiara Semple finished with 29 successes from 33 attempts. Kendra Falefitu sank seven of her 11 attempts for Auckland.
The Wellington-Christchurch game was a thriller. Christchurch led 13-9 after the first quarter. Wellington won the second quarter 12-11, the third 11-8 and the fourth 11-9.
Christchurch goal shoot Juliana Na'oupu finished with 30 successes from 32 attempts.
