Lightning lose season opener
WASPS 72 LOUGHBOROUGH LIGHTNING 42
LOUGHBOROUGH Lightning Netball kick-started their 2019 Superleague campaign on Saturday, taking on reigning champions Wasps in front of a 5,000 strong crowd in Arena Birmingham.
Lightning entered the match with a fierce determination, eager to gain a lead over the side that stole the title from Lightning twice in as many years.
Both sides boasted new players, new head coaches and young talent coming up through the ranks, leaving the audience in anticipation of how they would match up this year.
The game started well for both sides, converting their opening centre passes and continuing to do so for most of the first five minutes. Wasps renowned dominant defence took no time to click on court, slowly applying pressure to a cool and calm Clark and Clinton in Lightning’s shooting circle. A slight edge was all that Wasps needed to push on in the last five minutes of the quarter to finish it 20-10 ahead.
A shake up in Lightning’s side for the second quarter saw Jess Shaw and Britt Coleman added to the mix with a tactical move to WD for skipper Panagarry. Despite the changes, Lightning began to find their groove and close the gap to 31-23 at half time.
In the third quarter Panagarry and Joseph battled hard against an experienced Clarke who denied any opportunity for error and it was Wasps who increased their lead to 50-32.
The final quarter saw for Lightning give Superleague debuts to Annabel Roddy and Ugandan Mary Cholhok who took to the shooting circle for her debut having arrived in the country just six days earlier. Nerves were expected however within a few minutes play the 6 ft 7 shooter began to show the crowds what she was made of, but the changes came simply too late as Wasps counted down the clock to a resounding 72-42 win.
Head Coach Sara Bayman said the game much learning and positivity to work on.
“I think our start was really strong and it’s exciting to see the new and young talent coming through. There are positives to take I think it’s important to reflect well this week and come out firing next weekend.”
Skipper Nat Panagarry said: “We need to go back to the drawing board, look at what we did wrong and work on those errors going into next week. We need to have confidence in ourselves and make sure we’re matching the intensity of the opposition for the entire match not just for one or two quarters.”