By JULIE ASH
Waikato, Southland and Canterbury are through to the top four at the national championships in Invercargill, but the final spot is up for grabs.
Waikato and Southland qualified in pool A and Canterbury went through from pool B.
Counties and Manukau beat local rivals Netball North 71-65 in a close
battle last night and are second equal with Otago in pool B.
Counties and Manukau have the better points differential, but they face Canterbury today in the final series of the round-robin competition. Otago meet the less favoured Western Manawatu.
Coach Jan Lundon said her team were well aware that the Canterbury factor was the only thing standing between them and a place in the playoffs.
"We had a run against them in a pre-season game, so we know what we are up against."
In other matches today, Waikato, who crushed Bay of Plenty 76-36 yesterday, play Southland to decide the top seed in pool A.
Waikato and Southland have been unchallenged in their pool, beating Auckland Waitakere, Tasman, Wellington and Bay of Plenty convincingly.
Canterbury have been just as dominant in pool B. They outclassed Western Manawatu 66-34 yesterday, following victories over Otago, Eastern and Netball North.
Auckland Waitakere picked up their first win yesterday, beating Tasman 67-42.
Coach Marlene Flavell said it was good to finally get a win under their belt. "We really needed it," she said. "We led at every quarter."
She said the championship had proved that there was a big gap between some teams in the first division.
"I think you are always going to get that because of the movement of players. There are certainly some standout teams, but you never know who they are going to be each year because the players move around so much."
Auckland Waitakere face Bay of Plenty today.
"We really want to win that one," Flavell said. "We drew with them 61-61 in a pre-season match, so we know it will be close."
"Both teams have key players in different areas of the court so it should be a great game."
In other first division matches today, Netball North meet Eastern and Wellington play Tasman.
