St Marys women are second best to Panthers
WOMEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
Portlaoise Panthers 77 Team Tom McCarthy’s 61
TEAM Tom McCarthy’s St. Mary’s faced tough opponents in their open game of the season in the women’s Division One league when they met Portlaoise Panthers away. Panthers, who played Superleague last season, proved to be a force to be reckoned with.
Liam Culloty’s squad had an impressive start in the opening quarter a spread of scores from Denise Dunlea, Aoife Nolan, Deirdre Geaney and team captain Lorraine Scanlon saw the Castleisland girls lead 21 to 18 at the end of the first, Scanlon leading by example with 11 personal points.
St. Mary’s second quarter performance was no match for the home team. Panthers took full much better defensively. The skill level on display was very advantage of this and netted 19 points, 11 of these coming from Claire Melia who was expected to be the main threat. Team Tom McCarthy’s trailed by five points at the interval.
Portlaoise came out strong in the third quarter and built on their lead, St. Mary’s Aoife Nolan proved to be invaluable netting eight of the squads 16 for the period; however they trailed by 12 as they entered the final period.
St. Mary’s made a huge comeback high and a fantastic example of this was when Darragh Jones in the fourth quarter and had reduce the gap to eight points mid way through, however they were in foul trouble and the Portlaoise side left nothing behind from the free through line. Coach Liam Culloty says that he is happy with the teams performance “the girls played very well as a team against tough opponents, we are looking forward to our first home game next weekend and we urge everyone to come out and support us” TEAM TOM MCCARTHY’S ST. MARY’S: game an inch perfect pass to the onrushing Daniel Jacobitus, who Lorraine Scanlon 18, Denise Dunlea 14, Aoife Nolan 11, Mary Herlihy 6, Deirdre Geaney 6, Roisín Casey 5, Cassandra Buckley 1.