A tale of two halves...

The 2nd team warmed up well, and felt confident going into the match that they could give the 1st team a tough game. Lots of club players and parents were there to watch and it seemed most of the spectators lining the sidelines were cheering for the underdogs!

The first team got off to a flying start and were soon 9-0 up, with Jenny Vanner repeatedly driving to the top of the circle and feeding a perfectly weighted high ball into Katie Harris over the despairing hand of Liz Roche. The 1st team were also putting incredible pressure on the 2nd team attack, with Debbie Greenslade, the team's usual driving force getting some very close attention from Jenny. This meant panicky passes going astray and the shooters having very little opportunity for shots.

A fortuitous injury time out allowed the 2nd team to regroup and some changes to be made, with Lauren Williams going back to GK to put some height against Katie, and Liz going out to GD. Jayne Goldsbrough entered the game and immediately the front court settled down, and the game then went goal for goal, with the first quarter ending 15-6.

In the second quarter, the 2nd team remained unchanged and came out all guns blazing. By contrast, the 1st team had made a number of changes and they seemed to take some time to settle down. Megan Melbourne was dominating in the attack for the 2nd team, and now that Jenny was off the court, Debbie was able to run the front court more effectively, feeding some great balls into Jayne. Hannah Matthews was on at WD and using her height to her advantage with some good tips, but Mel Steingass was seeing the first time ball into the circle and feeding well. The 2nd team really pushed hard this quarter and deservedly won it by 13 goals to 9, to pull the score back to 24-19 at half time.

In the third quarter, Olivia Emanus and Lydia Regis had worked out the 2nd team attack and were beginning to make their presence felt. With Debbie off the court for the 2nd team, and Bethany Cownden coming on at WA, some wayward passing in the front court was preventing the 2nd team from getting many shooting opportunities. However Lucy McCarthy at WD, in a massive height mismatch against Katie, was really committing to the interception, which meant that she got several valuable turnovers. However despite hard work by Liz and Lauren in the circle, the ball kept returning to the 1st team shooters, who did not miss too many of their opportunities. The quarter ended 38-25 to the 1st team.

Going into the final quarter, the 2nd team were focussed on keeping the scores as close as possible and ensuring that the valuable extra point was gained. Unfortunately, there was more of the same in this period, as the first team showed their class and extended their lead still further. Despite a good all court defence, the 2nd team only scored 10 goals in the second half and this proved to be the downfall as the 1st team ran away with what had promised to be a close match, 50-29.