Netball: Stylish Force take lustre off Diamonds

By Sarah Nealon

Defeating the Auckland Diamonds in classy style has brought the Northern Force one step closer to making the semi-finals in the national netball league.

In a game dominated by sharp play from Force mid-courters Jenny-May Coffin and Sonya Hardcastle, the Northern side beat the lacklustre Diamonds 50-45 in the seventh round of the Coca-Cola Cup.

With four losses and only two wins under their belts, the Diamonds are now effectively out of the competition, as are the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic who lost to the Otago Rebels 62-53.

The Western Flyers and the Cometz both suffered big losses with the Capital Shakers thrasing the Flyers 59-44, and the Cometz losing to the Southern Sting 67-52.

The Force are now third equal with the Canterbury Flames on the points table. Second are the Southern Sting.

The Rebels who have been at the top of the table for weeks, are the first team to have made it into the semis. That leaves six teams vying for the remaining three spots.

At the North Shore Events Centre, the Force rattled the Diamonds right from the start.

During the first quarter, goal shoot Leonie Leaver and goal attack Kylie Hall had trouble passing the ball around the circle.

Diamonds coach Tania Karauria sensed the shooting combination was not working.

At quarter time, Hall - who had failed to put a single ball though the hoop - was replaced by Courtney Read. Read, in turn, was replaced at half time by Kiri Adams.

Down at the other end, the feeding to Force shooters Teresa Tairi and Elizabeth Dean was swift and stylish.

"I think we managed to do what we had practiced," said Force captain Linda Vagana. On Friday we had problems with our mid-court when we played Otago and we were determined to get it right."

At three-quarter time the Auckland side trailed the Force 27-41, but an overdue burst of energy from the visitors in the final spell, saw that lead narrowed.

"We didn't have a strong desire to win until the last 15 minutes," said Karauria. "We created a lot of ball, but had problems being able to finish it off."

Armed with the formidable Tanya Cox, the Capital Shakers were too much for the Western Flyers, leading at every quarter.

Despite playing with a broken foot, Cox was outstanding at goal keep and upset the Flyers shooters. Like the Diamonds, the Flyers had three different team members playing goal attack.

The Southern Sting were equally strong against the Cometz. Silver fern Bernice Mene was in superb form at goal defence and worked hard against Cometz shooter Janine Topia.

Good footwork from Cometz centre Temepara George saw the them trail the Sting by only three in the third quarter.

Down in Dunedin, Otago's Belinda Colling played well at both goal attack and wing attack. However, the number of on-court changes from Rebels coach Georgina Salter disrupted the flow and the home side had to work hard for the points.