By JULIE ASH
Netball North coach Yvonne Willering says there is no chance of her side becoming complacent despite their dominant run in the national provincial championships.
The North Shore-based side romped away with their fourth consecutive win in Mystery Creek yesterday, beating hometown favourites Waikato 61-46.
The 15-goal difference is the
closest any side has come to the star-studded North side in the week-long tournament.
But unlike Netball North's other opponents, Waikato did provide them with some competition and were in the match until the last quarter.
They trailed Netball North by just one goal in the first two quarters before North extended their lead to four at the three-quarter break and then 15 at full time.
"They like to leave their best until last," Willering said. "We made a lot of errors and our shooting stats weren't quite up to it."
Netball North put up 86 shots and landed 61 while Waikato put up 56 shots and missed just 10.
North's worse culprit was goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti, who scored 34 goals from 53 attempts.
But despite her inaccuracy Willering stuck with her for the entire match, instead opting to replace goal attack Teresa Tairi with Tania Dalton at half time.
"We were still getting the ball there ... it was just a matter of her coming right really.
"We have seen it [Wipiiti have an off day] in the past ... so it's better that it happened now rather than in the semis."
Waikato were still without injured midcourters Jenny-May Coffin and Amigene Metcalfe.
Willering paid tribute to Waikato's performance. "This is the best I believe Waikato have played all week, even though they lost, they really took it to us," she said.
"We needed a tough game leading up to our last round-robin game against Auckland. We needed to be tested and I think we were tested but we held it together.
"I wouldn't want to have it totally our way going into semifinals."
Netball North's opponent today is Auckland Waitakere who edged out Canterbury 53-52 last night to maintain their unbeaten run.
"They have had some close games so I am sure they will come out pretty fired up," Willering said.
In yesterday's other game Otago beat Wellington 52-35.
In other matches today Canterbury play Wellington and Waikato face Otago. In the bottom six Tasman play Western, Bay of Plenty meet Eastern and Counties and Manukau play Southland.
