Netball: Defence shuts out van Dyk

By JULIE ASH

FORCE 47 MAGIC 42

The Force brought Irene van Dyk to a standstill and as a result clinched a win over the Magic and a place in Friday's major semifinal against the Flames.

Not unlike the Sting and Flames match on Friday night, the second minor semifinal played in Tauranga today also went down to the wire.

But in the end the Force's unrelenting defence proved too much for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic who struggled to get the ball down the court and into shooting ace van Dyk.

"Certainly I'd say that was our best defensive game to date," Force coach Yvonne Willering said.

"The amount of possession we did get against a quality player like Irene [van Dyk] and also through their midcourt was very pleasing."

A lesson learned perhaps from the last time the two sides met when the Magic crushed the North Harbour side by 12 goals due to some fairly average Force defence.

"Last time I think we focused a little bit too much on Irene. We didn't really try and get the ball until it got into the goal third so this time we really wanted to take the ball early so that we avoided Irene getting the ball in hand.

"We really wanted to shut down the midcourt and, to a certain degree, I think we achieved that."

Trailing 11-14 at the first break, the Force surged ahead early in the second quarter, scoring five unanswered goals.

Evenly matched throughout the mid-part of the quarter, the Force then scored another run of unanswered goals which gave them a 25-20 half-time lead.

With both Force defenders Kate Dowling and Linda Vagana back on van Dyk, and such tight midcourt defence, the Magic were often forced to release bombs into van Dyk and hope for the best.

Unfortunately for them, more often than not such passes flew out of court or into the hands of Vagana and as a result van Dyk was starved of the ball and shot just six goals in the second quarter.

But, although the Magic shooters had a lot less possession than their rivals, the accuracy of van Dyk and goal attack Anna Senio, when they did get the ball, kept them in the match.

The Magic defence, particularly Casey Williams, were also impressive and made life extremely difficult for the Force attack.

The Magic trailed by just one (35-36) going into the last quarter and with just nine minutes to play the match was locked up at 38-all.

While unforced errors crept into the Magic's game, the cool and composed heads of experienced Force players Vagana, Temepara Clark and Teresa Tairi came through.

Four unanswered goals late in the quarter handed the Force an unattainable lead.

A disappointed Magic coach Nicole Dryden said her side made too many wrong decisions.

"We are better than that. We are usually much more disciplined and know that it shouldn't be forced.

"In a lot of cases there were other options out there, we just didn't use them.

"But the Force absorbed the pressure very well. They are very experienced in that regard."

Despite the win, the Force's shooting is still a concern. While the Magic nailed 42 of their 49 attempts, the Force could manage only 47 out of 62.

"Certainly that is an area we need to look at ... but you have to give credit to their in-circle defence, they worked really hard in there and are pretty tall players to shoot over," Willering said.

The Force now have just five days before their clash with the Flames in Auckland on Friday.

"The Flames have got two quality shooters so it is an entirely different ball game," Willering said.

"It won't be as aerial and will kind of be like going from the Sting to Magic and back again."

The winner meets the Southern Sting in the final on June 18.