Elsa Brown at GS for Uni Premier. Photo / Alex Woods.
Tommo's Bakery Indoor Premier Championship round results - August 11
FTNC Premier 71 vs St Paul's College Open A 29
New World Rototuna Suburbs Premier 76 vs New World Rototuna Suburbs Prem Res 46
Uni Premier 69 vs First Credit Union Verdettes Marist 47
In the fourth week of the Tommo's Bakery indoor open premier grade championship round Uni Premier maintained their unbeaten status with a win over First Credit Union Verdettes Marist.
The first quarter was very competitive with Uni Premier only ahead by four goals but by half time they lead by twelve goals. The second half saw Verdettes Marist remaining competitive, but with each quarter Uni Premier continued to pull a few goals ahead.
The final score was 69 goals to 47.
For Uni Premier the menacing defence combination of Savanagh Cassidy at wing defence, Rachael Fabling at goal defence and Amy Christophers at goal keep made the Verdettes Marist shooters work hard and created turnover ball.
The Uni Premier attacking players capitalised on this at the other end with all three shooters throughout the game shooting at a high percentage.
Ariana Cable Dixon at centre showed outstanding vision and precision with some of her feeds into the circle.
For Verdettes Marist they mixed it up throughout the game using the whole bench in an attempt to combat the strong Uni team, particularly the shooters.
The team enjoyed having Ellen Halpenny back in at goal attack then goal shooter before she heads to Silver Fern trials. Micaela Ashford moving from goal keep to centre later in the game added a bit of spice to the mid court.
In the all club game between New World Rototuna Suburbs Premier and New World Rototuna Suburbs Premier Reserve this was started at pace with both teams prepared to quickly release the ball.
Suburbs Premier held an eight goal lead at end of first quarter but only managed to increase this to 10 goals at half time with the Premier Reserve team putting in a solid performance and showing that the club has depth.
Suburbs Premier then had a dominant third quarter and strong final quarter and they won 76 goals to 46.
For Suburbs Premier Sarah Hayman at goal shoot dominated the shooting circle and shot brilliantly and at the opposite end of the court Jenna O'Sullivan at goal keep turned over numerous ball on defence.
Overall a good team performance with some nice speed and lines through court.
For Suburbs Premier Reserve Georgia Eldridge had a dominant performance at both goal attack and goal shoot acting as playmaker and scoring consistently.
Eldridge was ably assisted by Colein Swift and Sonya Noble in the goal circle and they were fed some good ball by Mikayla Apiti at wing attack.
Kura Poulava (captain) came on at goal keep in the first quarter due to an injury and provided leadership and direction. Poulava combined well with Carissa Te Wharau at goal defence, Tori Van Der Heyden at wing defence and Danielle Coffin at centre and they provided a solid defensive effort.
FTNC Premier had a dominant and strong start to their game against St Paul's College Open A to lead by 18 goals at the end of the first quarter and restricting the young team to just two goals.
Despite the slow start by the college team, the second quarter was then very close with FTNC Premier only increasing their lead to 21 goals.
FTNC Premier made changes going into the third quarter and St Paul's College A lost focus only to perform better in the final quarter.
The final score was 71 goals to 29. For FTNC Premier Jahna Bell, playing up from FTNC Premier 1 was a stand out.
Bell came on in the second half at centre and had a very strong performance linking well with Alix Boe at wing attack. For St Paul's College Teri Wathen-Smith at centre then wing attack was strong and she led through the mid court.
The college team were however coming off a high in that they won the open grade of the WBOP Zone Secondary Schools Netball tournament on Sunday in Rotorua.