TeamBath have confirmed a place in the 2011 FIAT Netball Superleague play-off with a narrow win over Leeds Carnegie in Round 15 secured by a late goal-run in the final quarter.
With less than seven minutes to play the home side trailed 44-45 but pushed on to secure the points that keeps them in the running to defend their title in the later stages of the season thanks to the consistency and precision of their shooters.
“Asha and Rosie were spot on in their efforts today,” said Carnegie co-coach Lisa Ferneyhough, “when it came to the crunch their accuracy ensured the win.”
TeamBath is perhaps the Superleague side most affected by this weekend’s absence of England players and yet Jess Garland’s keenness to rotate her squad whenever possible has ensured those starting today have acquired plenty of court time this season, although just two seats on the bench were filled. Millie Grey and Kadeen Corbin, sister of Sasha who made her Superleague debut as the second half goal-keeper.
It was goal for goal in the first quarter, TeamBath fell back to trail 8-10 before moving 13-12 in front. There were plenty of goals in the second quarter too and with Rosie Allison lobbing in from long-range the home side were 26-23 ahead.
At half-time Leeds made their only changes, Krista Enziano brought her current good form with her on court and helped the visitors fight back after an early lag in the game to win the quarter and close the gap to 38-39 at the final interval.
TeamBath were unable to pull out a massive lead over Leeds in the last 15 minutes of the match and even the five goal buffer wasn’t enough as the visitors closed up scoring two last minute goals to make it 52-49.
“What a test for this group of the squad”, Jess Garland admitted; “it wasn’t pretty at times and we were made to play full-out but I’m pleased with our squad in keeping with the TeamBath ethos of strength in depth even though we had several players missing”.
Her opposite number was pleased with her own squad’s performance, the gap between the two sides was more than 30 goals earlier in the season. “We did well to match them across the court,” Lisa Ferneyhough thought, “we had trouble closing them down down ups and down and in the end, more experience from them shone through. But we have learned so much from this.”
