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Waikato coach Barbara Clarke admits she hasn't seen a lot of Auckland Waitakere so far in the national netball championships but on their recent results believes they are the team to beat.
Waikato have their chance this morning when the two sides, who squared off in the final
last year, meet in the first game of the top-six playoffs in Palmerston North.
The playoffs involve the top three teams from the two sections - North, Otago and Waikato from section A and Auckland Waitakere, Southland and Western from section B. Crossover matches now take place to determine the semifinalists.
While Auckland Waitakere cruised into the top six, scoring comfortable wins in all five of their matches, Waikato's road was a little more bumpy.
Beaten by Otago and North, the defending champions scrapped into the playoffs yesterday with a 44-40 win over Canterbury.
Canterbury led by seven at the end of the first quarter and had a four-goal buffer only to be overrun by the superior accuracy of Waikato's Hayley Stockman and Halana Leith.
The Canterbury duo of Jade Topia and Julianna Naoupu put up four more shots than their Waikato counterparts but Stockman, who recorded 32 from 38 attempts, proved the difference.
"They led, we led, they led and we just happened to lead at the right time at the end of the game really," Clarke said.
"We made less mistakes than them in that particular time. Yesterday's game against North where we lost it in the last five minutes probably taught us a good lesson."
Clarke feels her side are improving but still need to reduce basic errors.
Auckland Waitakere and North emerged the two unbeaten sides at the end of section play. North had three tight encounters which saw them squeeze out narrow victories over Otago, Canterbury and Waikato.
"I haven't seen a lot of Auckland's games but if you go by the scores they are the most dominant team out of the both pools," Clarke said. "They will go through to the next phase as favourites."
Paula Bailey, the coach for Auckland Waitakere, whose closest match came yesterday when they beat Southland by 53-48, was happy with her team's efforts so far but "we haven't hit our stride yet".
In other first-grade matches yesterday Wellington beat Bay of Plenty 49-39, Western cemented their place in the playoffs with a comfortable 60-35 win over Tasman and Otago beat Eastern.
