JEN CORNWALL
XAVIER Saints took out a thrilling two-goal victory over Gumnuts in Gawler & District A-grade netball on Saturday afternoon.
Xavier got away to a small lead at the end of the first quarter, which forced a change in defence for Gumnuts.
It was a power play at both ends of the court, with each defender making the opposing shooters work hard for every goal.
Xavier had great defensive pressure from Samantha Whitington in the midcourt, who put the clamps on Gumnuts’ attackers Melissa Daley and Jade Martin.
Xavier led at half-time, but after an epic fight back in the third quarter Gumnuts clawed back the score and got within reach of victory.
With both teams determined to fight for every play, it was 25 seconds of overtime that saw Xavier shooters Jessica Dunkeld and Jess Maslin help seal the twogoal win.
Meanwhile, St Georges’ A grade was desperate for its first win of the season heading into Saturday, and took out a five-goal victory over Lutheran.
Keely Sinclair proved to be an asset to Lutheran, providing fast options and passages of play through the midcourt that helped her team build a four-goal lead by quarter-time.
Lutheran defenders Erin Donald and Hannah Winter were hard at work ensuring that buffer remained throughout most of the game.
St George’s never gave up and was determined to get the win, and fought hard every minute of the fourth quarter.
Stephanie Pocock was feeding the ball into shooters Brooke Phelps and Leanne Clinch, and they rallied to secure the victory.
In a historic first, Sandy Creek took on its former B-grade side, Sandy Creek Green, and won by 43 goals.
In true Sandy Creek form, it came out firing leaving its opposition at the starting line for most of the first half.
Nicole Tucker was unstoppable in goal defence, shutting down a lot of Green’s plays and forcing turnovers.
Going into the second half with a 28-goal lead, it was the change of Danielle Penfold from defence to attack that saw the change in the Green side and it was able to pick up the scoring.
However, it wasn’t enough as Sandy Creek’s A-grade claimed the win 62-19.