Netball Whanganui’s Premier 1 competition on Monday provided some real nail-biters, with winning margins of only six, two and seven goals across the three games.
The tightest of the evening was the matchup between HP Pirates A1 and Phillips Electrical WHS A1, currently ranked second and fourth respectively.
It wasa tall order, but the young High School side knew they needed the win to lock in a semifinals berth. They came out firing, something coach Lisa Murphy attributed to a discussion at training the day before about what needed to happen over the next two games to achieve their season goal of Top 4.
With two main players – Ruby Bullock and Mischa Petley – still out with injury, Lulu Dufty at goal attack and Annabelle Brown at wing attack really stepped up, having been on the bench most of the season.
“I’ve always said to my players, when you get the opportunities on court, you take them, and they surely did.”
The game was close all the way, with WHS trailing 8-9 at the first quarter break, 13-16 at halftime and 24-all going into the final quarter. Murphy identified a couple of misread options in the final minutes that saw Pirates take the win 32-30.
“Overall, I was very happy with my girls’ game. We now move forward to our last round robin game against Marist which we know is going to be a big one.”
For Pirates head coach Casey McDougall, it was not the performance she was hoping for.
“We didn’t adjust to umpire calls and work well on attack which was very disappointing after such a strong season.”
Pirates will take on Kaiwhaiki A1 next week but will need a win by 76 goals to overtake them on the leaderboard.
In other games, Marist Mint A1 beat Whanganui Collegiate Senior A 39-32, while Kaierau Mitre 10 Mega A1 did what all teams have strived to do this season and toppled table leaders Kaiwhaiki A1, winning 32-26 and denying them a bonus point.
In Premier 2 matches, St John’s Club Tech A1 continued their good form with a 45-26 win over Kaierau Gemini Pepper Construction A3, while table leaders Kaierau Air Whanganui A2 continued their dominance of the grade with a 45-22 win over Mt View Marist A2.
In the closest match-up of the night, Kaiwhaiki Gold A2 beat Waimarino 37-31, denying them a bonus point.
Only Kaierau and Kaiwhaiki are confirmed for the semifinals.
Next week’s final round robin games will determine the last two spots with Tech A1 (17pts), Marist A2 (16pts) and Waimarino A1 (16pts) all still very much in the hunt.
