Netball: Top teams square off for semis

By JULIE ASH

The Force will play the Flames and the Sting will face the Shakers in next weekend's national league semifinals.

The Sting finished top of the table and will play the fourth-placed Shakers in Invercargill on Sunday afternoon.

The second-placed Force will play the third-placed Flames at the North Shore Events Centre on Friday night.

In the final round of the National Bank-sponsored competition, the Southern Sting beat the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic 61-48, the Canterbury Flames downed the Western Flyers 65-46, the Capital Shakers trounced the Counties-Manukau Cometz 77-36 and at North Harbour yesterday, the Rebels went down 57-44 to the Force.

A hesitant start from the Force kept the Rebels in the game until late in the second quarter, when they pulled away to a 10-goal lead.

Young Rebels defenders Anna Scarlett and Jenny Ferguson did well to contain Force shooters Teresa Tairi and Daneka Wipiiti.

At the other end of the court Force defenders Linda Vagana and Kate Dowling had the better of Rebels shooters Angelina Yates and Katie Ritchie most of the time.

The Force led 27-20 at halftime and 44-34 at the three-quarter break, but often struggled to get the ball down court. It was not the performance coach Maria Lynch was looking for just days before their semifinal clash with the Flames.

"It was sort of hard to prepare for because we realised we were already into the semis," Lynch said.

"We knew the Rebels were just going to be going for everything and take every risk under the sun. So we just had to keep control of the game and every time the Rebels came back at us we stepped up a gear and pulled away again. But I wouldn't be happy if we came out and played that way in the semis."

There were only two injury breaks in the entire game, which is a far cry from the several that usually occur.

"That's quite interesting," Lynch said. "We don't take a lot of injury breaks and neither do they, which is good because it can get a bit tiring when one team gets a roll-on and then a player in the other team stages an injury and needs to get some little thing looked at.

"Netball is not a game for stoppages. If you want to do that, play basketball."

In their first-round match, the Force built up a 12-goal lead in the first quarter, but scraped through by only one goal at the end.

"They have got [Silver Fern goal keep] Vilimaina Davu - who has missed a lot of the season due to injury - back in the team now," Lynch said.

"But we are also a different team from when we played them.

"We just have to take control and not let them get a sniff because the Flames go for everything; they are really terriers."