Netball: Force give Shakers a shakedown

By JULIE ASH

North Harbour's Force are at the top of the table in the national netball league after a convincing win over the Capital Shakers in Wellington yesterday.

After a one-goal win over the Canterbury Flames in their opening game, the Force trounced the Shakers 63-45 in the second round of the National Bank Cup.

Force coach Maria Lynch said it was great to have two wins under their belt.

"Last week was tough and this one was hard one as well," she said.

"But everyone worked really hard to keep building on our lead."

Lynch said the game plan was to stop the ball getting to Shakers goal shoot Irene van Dyk.

"We put a pretty solid mid court zone on," she said. "They worked hard but they couldn't get to the circle to feed her."

The Force came out strongly in the first quarter and goal keep and captain Linda Vagana snatched two intercepts in the first two minutes of the game.

"Linda had a great game against Irene," said Lynch. "She had set herself a little goal of how many intercepts she wanted to get and once the girls saw that Linda had the confidence and backed herself enough to go for those intercepts it lifted the whole team."

The Force led 15-13 at the first break. Then, through the work of midcourt players Temepara Clark and Jenna Swan, who had no trouble feeding shooters Daneka Wipiiti and Teresa Tairi, they really stamped their authority on the game in the second quarter.

The Force lead 31-23 at half time and 45-35 at the three-quarter break.

After a bye last weekend, the Shakers, under the guidance of Waimarama Taumaunu, filling in for coach Tanya Dearns, who is on maternity leave, showed flashes of brilliance but threw too many passes away, and the Force capitalised on them.

In other games, Auckland Waitakere Diamonds, after a disappointing first-round draw against the Western Flyers, took the court against Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic on Saturday night in front of a packed crowd at Auckland's Unitec Stadium.

Down 15-14 in the first quarter, the Diamonds took the lead early in the second quarter.

They were up 28-24 at half time, 45-32 at the three-quarter break and 58-44 at fulltime.

Diamonds shooters Angela Maoate and Leonie Leaver had the better of the Magic defence.

At the other end of the court, the Diamonds defence of Katie Fay and Rachel Rasmussen also had strong games and Anna Rowberry had a great tussle with incumbent Silver Fern Jenny-May Coffin.

Although they were sometimes guilty of going too fast, the main difference from last week was the Diamonds' success in combining as a team.

Diamonds co-captain Kiri Adams said her side were focusing on being patient.

"Katie and Rachel got such good ball and this week we were able to capitalise on it, whereas last week we tended to throw it away and our passers chose the hard options."

The Canterbury Flames beat the Otago Rebels 47-38 and the Western Flyers downed the Counties Manukau Cometz 40-37.

The Southern Sting had the bye.