Girls’ High get unfriendly welcome to top comp
For the opening quarter of their debut in this year’s premier one netball competition, New Plymouth Girls’ High School gave Inglewood a run for their money.
However, the opening 15 minutes were all the high school team could boast about as last year’s runners-up went from messy to magic to claim a 60-26 win in New Plymouth on Thursday night.
The match was expected to be a tough encounter for Girls’ High, who were promoted into the premier one competition at Western Suburbs’ expense after topping the premier two competition through the five grading rounds.
It wasn’t much of a surprise to see the young side come out a bit shaky, but while they missed their opening shot of the match, they were able to force turnovers on Inglewood’s first two possessions.
It took a little over two minutes before Inglewood opened the scoring for the match, and Girls’ High seemed to have brushed any nerves aside when they found themselves two goals ahead midway through the period.
The fast passing display put on by Inglewood mid-courter Jessie Fowell and goal-attack Wendy Williams around the shooting circle soon got Inglewood on the right foot and, while the side looked disjointed at times, they went into the second quarter locked at 9-9.
Girls’ High were competitive in the opening quarter, however for the remaining 45 minutes of play, it was all Inglewood.
Sinking the opening three goals for the second quarter, Inglewood began to look ominous on the ball. The side went on a 9-2 run to open the quarter and once Girls’ High got a few goals down they started to panic and force passes.
Inglewood pounced on this and at halftime they held a commanding 24-14 lead. The side picked up where they left off to start the second half, putting on a clinical display across the court.
A strong performance from Samantha Burkhart and Erika Maifea in the defensive circle provided the platform for Fowell and fellow mid-courter Lauren Bayens to launch attack after attack, while the shooters were on target for most of the night.
The third quarter was a onesided affair as Inglewood outscored Girls’ High 23-5 to lead by 28 with 15 minutes to play, and ran away with the points as they claimed a 34-goal win.
‘‘It just took them a wee while to settle,’’ Inglewood coach Annette Perrett said. ‘‘I don’t know what that was all about in the first quar- ter actually, but it was about going back to the basics and regrouping.
‘‘We had a lot of ball in that first quarter, we were just throwing it away...but they regrouped and put it together and got the speed of the ball going through the court and did a little bit more driving.’’
In other results, Naumai proved too good for New Plymouth Old Boys in Stratford, taking a 56-48 win, while Tysons toppled Stratford-Eltham 70-41.
● Netball Taranaki have appointed Shona Glentworth as interim general manager. Glentworth, a board member of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce from 2003-2011 and acted as interim chief executive recently, has been employed for 20 hours a week until a new general manager is recruited.