On Thursday afternoon, we competed in our second netball match, this time going to Four Lanes, looking to bounce back from a defeat last time out. We identified in the previous game that we needed to be more aggressive, needing more desire to retrieve the ball, win the 50/50's and win it back from rebounds. Whilst netball is a non-contact sport, we were overpowered in our last game, so I worked on this with everyone the day before the game and it certainly paid off this time.
Understandably we were all very excited. In sports, it's all about controlling that excitement and remembering to do the right things. While we started well, we rushed our passes, not taking time with our shooting. We should have stuck with our markers when defending. Luckily for us, Four Lanes couldn't take advantage of this, and the scoreline remained 0-0. After a frantic 5 minutes, we started to settle down and regained our composure which led to us scoring a couple of well-worked goals through Evie and Nadia. At the end of the first quarter, we found ourselves 2-0 up, and I had a chance to tweak a couple of things. I reminded the team to use their 4 seconds if needed, to find the right pass and steady themselves before taking their shots at the goal.
The second quarter was a frantic one, with us adding 3 more goals to our score through Nadia x 2 and Tessa. Four Lanes also started to find their feet and grabbed two goals for themselves to make the score 5-2 to us heading into halftime. In this break, we talked about sticking with our opposing players to limit their chances. As we headed into the 3rd quarter, we started to assert our dominance within the game, Sourya and Eliza were defending excellently, and Four Lanes didn't manage to score a goal in this quarter whilst up the other end we were running riot with three more goals coming from Evie and Tessa x 2 to make it 8-2. After a brief chat about taking our time in the last quarter, I set out an objective for us not to concede another goal. Into the last quarter, we managed to get another 3 goals through Nadia x 2 and Evie to complete the scoring. The match finished 11-2 to us, and we achieved the objective of not conceding another goal.
The team were exceptional today, with some top-draw defending from Sourya, Eliza and Ben. Chloe and Rosie were brilliant as centres supporting the attack and defence. Nadia, Tessa and Evie were ruthless and linked up well with their shooting. They all fought for every loose ball, stuck with their opposing players, and all gave 110% to earn this victory.
Team: Nadia B, Rosie T, Chloe E, Tessa A, Sourya B, Evie C, Eliza B and Ben N.