Lightning’s winning run ends after Thunder rolls into town
2019 CHAMPIONS TOO STRONG FOR LOUGHBOROUGH
LOUGHBOROUGH Lightning’s seven-match winning streak was ended by Manchester Thunder in round nine of the Vitality Netball Superleague.
Lightning fell short on Easter Sunday afternoon after an intense battle against the 2019 champions, who claimed a 50-59 victory.
After a shaky start in last weekend’s clash against Strathclyde Sirens, Lightning came out with a newfound confidence, maintaining their strong start throughout the quarter and keeping it goal for goal.
Lightning had a slim 15-14 lead by the end of the first quarter but Thunder came roaring back to take a 31-26 lead into half-time.
That was despite Ugandan star Mary Cholhok and Suzie Liverseidge claiming a 100 per cent shot success for Lightning in the second quarter.
Lightning head coach Sara Bayman switched up the shooting circle, opting for long bomb queen and dual-athlete Ella Clark to join the fight and bring a level of calm to the clash. Meanwhile in defence, Loughborough University student Jas Odeogberin joined the mix in goal defence with stalwart Sam May moving to goalkeeper in place of Alice Harvey.
Treating fans to her famous lay-up style shot, Cholhok claimed her 300th goal of the season, the first shooter to reach the milestone so far.
Struggling to push the ball out of defence, Lightning used each and every advantage to close the gap and won the third quarter to trail by just one point.
Fighting tooth and nail for every ball, Thunder refused to lie down, extending their lead to five within the opening five minutes.
Matching the increased tempo, Lightning captain Nat Panagarry continued to wreak havoc on Thunder’s incoming ball, tipping it on the circle edge before righting herself to remain in the game and continue to hassle. With just four minutes remaining, young England U21 midcourter Hannah Williams entered the mix, adding a fresh set of eyes and legs to the battle.
Immediately tipping the ball and teaming up with Odeogberin to capitalise on a Thunder error, they quickly sent the ball down to Cholhok in an attempt to reduce Thunder’s lead.
However, Thunder’s sheer determination and work rate saw out the final moments of the match, earning them a well-fought victory.
Bayman said: “That result has been coming for a couple of weeks, we’ve not performed particularly well and if you go from six or seven goals up to five down in the space of six minutes then you probably don’t deserve to win.
“We were poor, the second and fourth quarter in particular, we were really bad, and we had enough chances to win that game and put it to bed by half-time and if you’re not going to do that against a team like Thunder then you’re going to pay.
“It was frustrating because it was a lot of individual errors and if you’re not willing to do the work against Thunder then they’re going to be all over you and the pressure told in the end.”
Speaking about the changes she made during the match, Bayman added: “We’ve definitely got options, Jas came on and did really well and it was nice to see Ella back out there, and that’s a positive we can take from this.
“But we’ll go away, we need to be better and I’m actually of the mindset that a loss is a good kick up the backside for us at this point in the season.”
Lightning have the chance to bounce back quickly when they face Strathclyde Sirens on Friday followed by Celtic Dragons the following day.
Meanwhile, Team Bath’s eightmatch unbeaten run in Superleague came to an end with a dramatic 39-38 loss to Saracens Mavericks.
In Monday’s fixtures, London Pulse beat Severn Stars 41-36 to claim only their second win of the season and Thunder had a comfortable 59-37 victory over a clearly tired Mavericks team to move into second place.
You can witness all the action live on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel.