The Whangarei Girls High School outfit proved to be a crowd pleaser at Kensington Stadium during round two of Whangarei Netball's premier grade competition.
With their youthful exuberance, fitness, flair and on-court ability, WGHS 1 had an edge over their Fideliter 1 rivals who took longer than usual to find their
rhythm and spark in Friday night's game.
While Fideliter were in the hunt early on with some snappy mid-court drives, excellent feeding to shooters and some long shots by Tina Cachemaille-Bayne, the schoolgirls never let them get too close. With the accurate mid court feeding to their tall shooter Alanah Vinson, they were always going to be hard to beat. Despite the 66-36 scoreline to Girls High, both teams' defence line-ups worked tirelessly against strong attacks.
Later on Friday night, Marist Old Girls showed the Onerahi 2 side how the game should be played when they comfortably defeated them 73-31. Old Girls' experienced heads never let Onerahi close enough to ever threaten their lead and some great defence, mid court plays, superb feeding and accurate shooting ensured Marist were always going to be dominant in this encounter. The Onerahi 2 team had come to play but was simply outclassed, the usually
accurate shooters hesitating to put the ball up over the tall defenders.
But Onerahi never gave up the fight and goal keep Cherith Schraag was rewarded with some great defensive intercepts in the final quarters against experienced campaigner Nicky Taylor.
In the other match played at Kensington Stadium, the new Fideliter 2 unit worked courageously to stay close to the experienced line-up Whangarei Old Boys 1 has fielded this season.
Old Boys' 1 made driving intercepts and kept their passes long, and these phases of play were finished off by the accurate shooting partnerships of Sue-Anne David, Trina Henare and Jo Davis-Cooper, who made sure the Fideliter defensive duo of Katrina Simpson and Bronwyn Henderson had to work hard for any intercept or rebound.
The same could be said for the Old Boys' defensive units who were also made to work hard by the Fideliter shooters. Old Boys came up trumps in the end though, winning 40-34.
Meanwhile at Kamo High School, Onerahi 1 dominated their game against Takahiwai 1 for the entire hour to win 59-24, with a strong cohesive game from the defenders right through to the shooters.
