Netball: Youngster to the rescue

By JULIE ASH


Netball North coach Yvonne Willering is confident her side have gone a long way towards laying their shooting demons to rest.

North have struggled with shooting in the National Bank Cup and the national championships, but a youngster, Catherine Latu, appears to have come to their rescue.

Latu, who is an impressive 1.95m, played a key role in North's less than convincing 50-40 win over Wellington last night.

Coming on in the second quarter, the Massey High School student landed an impressive 21 shots from 23 attempts.

"Catherine has got some strength," Willering said. "You have got to appreciate this is her first time at the national provincial championships. She was thrown in there today and I think she came through for us."

North and defending champions Waikato are the only two unbeaten teams after the third day of the tournament in Palmerston North.

With just one round-robin match remaining, Auckland Waitakere and Otago are expected to join them in the semifinals.


Waikato had no trouble dismissing Auckland Waitakere 72-40 last night, but North took until the last quarter to fend off a physical and determined Wellington side.

"We knew it was going to be a physical encounter because they mark one on one, but we made it difficult for ourselves," Willering said.


The star-studded North side were expected to blitz the winless Wellingtonians.

However, some tight one-on-one marking from their opponents got the better of the North Harbour side, who relinquished their 13-11 first-quarter lead to trail 25-20 at halftime.

North's main difficulty was in the shooting circle, where they were under continual pressure from the Wellington duo of Megan Hutton and Cushla Litchwark.

They also struggled to settle on a defence line-up, changing their goal keep-goal defence combination three times.

Despite their shortcomings, however, North surged back to lead 36-32 after the third quarter.

Wellington, who kept the same seven throughout the match, tired in the last quarter, handing North victory.

Willering got all her players on court, including three different shooting combinations - Latu, Teresa Tairi, Julie Kelman-Poto and Daneka Wipiiti.

They landed 50 shots from 61 compared with Wellington's 40 from 49.

Overall, though, it was hardly the performance Willering was looking for ahead of her side's top-of-the-table clash with Waikato today.

Waikato sealed their match against Auckland Waitakere last night with a dominant display in the second quarter.

With the score 12-12 at the first break, Waikato blew the error-ridden Aucklanders away with their speed and accuracy under the hoop.

Ahead 32-21 at halftime, Waikato extended their lead to 49-30 at the three-quarter mark before running away with the match 72-40.

In the other top-six game played yesterday, Otago edged out Canterbury 44-43.

Canterbury trailed their opponents in the first three quarters 13-11, 22-19 and 38-30.

Today, Wellington play Canterbury, Auckland Waitakere face Otago and Waikato meet North.

Final round-robin

* Wellington v Canterbury

* Auckland Waitakere v Otago

* Waikato v North