Kaiwhaiki A1 tops table as Premier 1 netball semifinals loom

Kaiwhaiki lead David Jones Motors Premier 1 netball with two rounds to play.

The top three seeds for David Jones Motors Premier 1 netball have been locked in with two round robin games to go.

Kaiwhaiki A1 sit clear at the top of the table, unbeaten on 32 points.

HP Pirates A1 and Kaierau Mitre 10 Mega A1 are on 24 points, with Pirates in second on goal differential.

The battle for the final spot is between Phillips Electrical WHS A1 and Marist Mint A1, with the latter keeping themselves in the hunt, picking up a bonus point against Kaierau in Monday night’s game.

Kaierau posted a superb eight-goal unanswered run in the first quarter to lead 12-5 at the break.

Marist fought back hard, with a 9-all second quarter and winning the last two quarters 10-5 and 8-7.

But it wasn’t quite enough to pull back the deficit of the first quarter.

Marist Coach Te Ora Nyman was pleased with her defensive trio Ita Hepi-McRitchie at goal keep, Zeah Brewer at goal defence and Maggie O’Connor out the front at wing defence.

They picked up plenty of ball, giving her side every opportunity to score.

Captain Shannah Andrews was also complimentary of her teammates.

“This is Ita and Zeah’s first year in Premier 1 and given their level of experience, they’re really standing up to the task”.

Marist will need to win both of their remaining games against Collegiate and WHS by more than five to keep their semifinal hopes alive, and hope that WHS lose to Pirates next week.

WHS require one more win against either Pirates or Marist to cement their semi-finals spot.

A draw or a bonus point loss will leave them subject to a countback on goal differential if they lose to Marist in the final round.

In other Premier 1 games, Kaiwhaiki A1 beat WHS 55-23 while Pirates A1 beat Collegiate 50-24.

In the Premier 2 grade, only two semi-final spots are confirmed with Kaierau Air Whanganui A2 sitting on 30 points and Kaiwhaiki Gold A2 on 26 points.

The Kaierau A2 side were dominating in their win over Waimarino on Monday taking the game 48-18 with Kaiwhaiki Gold A2 winning comfortably over Kaierau Gemini Pepper Construction A3 34-17.

The final two spots are being hotly contested by newcomers Waimarino (16 points), Marist Mt View A2 (16 points) and St John’s Club Tech A1 (13 points).

A win on Monday night for Marist A2 against Tech A1 would have cemented their semi-finals spot, but a sharper performance from the Tech side on both attack and defence, particularly through the mid-court, saw them take the win 38-28.