Fiat Netball Superleague-Mavericks sweep past Lightning 55-38
Hertfordshire Mavericks are top of the FIAT Netball Superleague; a blistering first quarter (20-9) set the side up for a 55-38 win over Loughborough Lightning 55-38 at the University of Hertfordshire.
For three quarters of this highly enjoyable and entertaining match Mavericks and Loughborough were toe-to-toe, but the home side started with “the B on BANG” and had the initiative all the way through.
Watching two England shooters both having a good game was great value for the crowd in Hatfield, and home fans saw Louisa Brownfield deliver 87% of her 45 shots - the captain liked a lot about the match: ““I think our first quarter was really impressive today and it’s something we have been working on we wanted to put our mark out there and come out really strong.
“Second quarter was a bit of a blip and we sort of took our foot off the pedal a bit an they came back really strong. So we had our work cut out for the last part of the game.”
Olivia Murpy, coach of Lightning played another full game: she is still and inspiring player to watch, however much she mutters about being too old; she says she’s just filling in while other players recover from injury. She was frustrated by going 20-9 down in the first 15 minutes.
“We keep having dodgy first quarters and it’s killing us in games,” Olivia said after the game. “We’re making too many errors, making things too difficult when we just need to keep things simple. The individual errors are costing us.”
Match-day coach Rose Port wants Lightning to stay strong throughout the match. “We need to learn to accept the challenge we know we are going to get knocked about a bit we need to be a bit tougher.”
Back on court for the first spot of competitive action this season, and fizzing with exhilaration, England’s up-comer Sasha Corbin was virtually pawing the court after coming on at WA for the second-half, after her transfer from TeamBath was finally completed in the week.
“I was just buzzing, hoping to get everything right that we have been doing in training for the last couple of weeks,” she admitted.
“I have been itching to get back on court even before pre-season; I just wanted to get out there, do my thing and play my game.”
And what did Mavericks head coach Maggie Jackson think about the match “The first quarter I was really, really delighted with, I don’t often say that but I’m really really pleased.
“Second quarter - lots of blips I think we’ve talked about how much work we have to do off the ball.” Oh well, no rest for the team in training ahead of the game on Friday 25th February.
