Midcourter and Mere Te Aroha co-captain Tariana Turia had a strong game in her side's narrow win over WHS on Monday night.
The top of the Whanganui Premier A1 Netball points table resembles a log-jam with just four points separating the first five teams with just one week of round robin play remaining.
Inspire Health & Fitness Mere Te Aroha remain at the top of the table on 17 points after five
wins and a draw, while Kaiwhaiki and Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau are tied on 14 and
Phillips Electrical Whanganui High School and Mint Cafe Marist are next with both on 13 points after play resumed following the holidays on Monday.
MTA beat WHS 50-46 in a tight match that could have easily gone either way, Kaierau came from behind to just beat Marist A1 by one point 37-36 and Kaiwhaiki dealt to bottom of the table Marist A2 68-30. In the other premier clash Taihape prevailed over Ruapehu 39-35.
MTA coach Deshannon Matthews and WHS coach Lisa Murphy both agreed it could have gone either way.
"It was really tight and all credit to me girls for a great win," Matthews said.
"My midcourt, led by co-captain Tariana Turia, was very strong, She was driving hard and making herself available combining well with Lucy Stewart at centre, We will continue to take it one game at a time and we play Kaiwhaiki next week in what will be crucial match before the semi-finals on August 7."
While still proud of her girls for not throwing in the towel, Murphy conceded an error-ridden game from her team cost them dearly.
"We simply made too many mistakes and we need to get rid of those by next week. We cannot go into the last round robin game making mistakes, it's so tight at the top of the table," Murphy said.
Meanwhile, Monday night's Marist A1 clash with Kaierau was evenly matched with both teams gaining possession through intercepts and tips.
Marist A1 coach Sharon Kaua said her outstanding defence of (GK) Lavinia Naunga combined well with (GD) Melissa Timoti, Cara Blake (C) and Luisa Bogileka (WD) confusing the space in the shooting circle to make the feeding hard by the Kaierau mid-courters.
"Blake drove nicely to the top of the circle to feed some nice ball into goal attack Tash Bullock (Capt) and Mikayla Pihema Taiaroa (GS)," Kaua said.
"Alicia Prince (WA) linked well with her attackers and also fed some good solid passes into the shooting circle."
By the end of the second quarter Marist A1 was ahead, but only by two points.
However, the game was hindered with a lot of injury stoppages from Pihema Taiaroa and Nikki Crawford who came on for Pihema Taiaroa.
Kaua used her entire bench bringing on Paula Jones (WA) who played an intelligent game to feed Bullock (now back at GS) and Alicia Prince (GA). The Marist team adjusted well to these changes and the scoreline did not change at half time with Marist and Kaierau 24 all.
"The game could have gone either way last night. It was another hard fought game with both teams displaying some amazing netball skills." The game was clean and tidy and really it was going to be up to the team who made the least mistakes", Kaua said.
In the dying seconds of the last quarter Kaierau capitalised on a questionable call made by the referee which saw Kaierau Mint Marist A1 by 1 goal 37-36.
" I am very proud of my girls regardless of the 1 point scoreline. They played with the usual gutsy, leave it all there, hard attitude that all past and present Marist A1 players have. The top four is tight and it will now come down to next week games," Kaua said.
Walter Edmonds, Kaierau A1 head coach described it as a game of defence ends.
"Both teams piled on the pressure through the entire court and make life hard in attack for each other as reflected in the low score," Edmonds said.
"This game was a must win for us and we are thrilled to take it. I thought defensively my girls did well to rebound any missed Marist goals and stay in play during critical moments of the match. Our captain Rachel Lynch, pairing this week in the defensive circle with Courtney Haywood, proved to be a good combination for us.
"We had to change things up in our shooting circle at half time to lift our score rate and we introduced school girl Taliah Sua to goal shoot, which helped to settle our attack end.
"Te Reo Paki was reintroduced to goal shoot late in the fourth quarter to seal the win for us in the final stages of the match.
"This year's competition is so competitive and the top five teams are so even. From a Netball Whanganui stand point this is great for netball in our region, but from a coaching perspective we know we need to lift if we want to contest play offs,"