MEGAN RENZELLA
ROUND nine of the Gawler & District
Netball Association season saw
Virginia stake its claim as the biggest
threat to the two Sandy Creek
sides, beating Lutheran 61-28 to
open up a gap between itself in third
and the teams behind it.
Virginia’s accuracy was the major
deciding factor, taking advantage of
the mistakes of a Lutheran team that
lacked consistency in the middle of the
game.
Lutheran got back on track in the last
quarter to trim the margin slightly, but
Virginia’s strong start and the shooting
of Tammy Lamont and Melissa Erickson
in goals was more than enough for
a comfortable result.
Sandy Creek started very strong
in its clash with Xavier Saints, keeping
the Saints’ goalies very quiet and
starving them of opportunity.
The Cockatoos complemented their
excellent defence with strong rebounding,
and took the ball straight back
down the other way.
Xavier kept up its effort, but was unable
to stop Sandy Creek from scoring
on the way to a 64-25 win.
In B-grade, Sandy Creek started
strongly against Lutheran, allowing
the Purple shooters near their goals.
The defensive pressure was on with
Lutheran working extremely hard as
well, and after the initial slow start,
Lutheran capitalised on some Sandy
Creek errors to end the first quarter
still within touching distance.
Despite the hard work of Amity
Cunningham, Lutheran couldn’t maintain
its pressure for a full four quarters,
with Sandy Creek shooters Emily Farrer
and Vanessa Langeberg leading the
charge for a 49-18 win.
Xavier Saints played a terrific game
against Virginia, with the margin increasing
each quarter as the Saints
piled on the goals for a 70-33 win.
Consistent team play contributed to
the success with Samantha Desmond
in defence and Tina McIntosh in goal
attack starring, with Virginia unable to
match the Saints’ consistency as the
game wore on.
In C-grade, the match between Gumnuts
Purple and Sandy Creek started
out relatively even before the Cockatoos
built a seven-goal first quarter
lead and never looked back.
Gumnuts made some changes to the
team for the final quarter with a great
defensive combination helping to slow
down Sandy Creek, but not enough to
get back in the game, going down 23-
49.
Xavier Saints and Gumnuts Jade
played a much tighter affair, with
Xavier coming out of the gates strong,
before Gumnuts roared back to tie the
game at three-quarter time.
A strong combination of Kiera
Chammen in wing attack and Niamh
Monaghan in goals helped close the
deal for Xavier Saints, winning 38-33
despite the brave effort from Gumnuts
and Amy Mudge in wing attack.
In under-15s, Virginia came up just
short in its battle against Xavier Saints,
going down 40-42 in a terrific game.
Xavier Saints showed a good flow of
play from its defence to its attack, finishing
with accuracy from its promising
goal shooter. Turnovers helped Xavier
take the lead in the first quarter, but Virginia
made some positional changes to
open the attack, with its goal defence
working overtime to help her team.
Ultimately, the Saints attack line
worked too well together down the
stretch for the Virginia defence to handle.
In under-13s, Sandy Creek Green and
Sandy Creek Blue went head to head for
bragging rights within the club.
Sandy Creek Blue’s younger players
stepped up to the challenge in a game
that was played well by both teams. It
was goal-for-goal for the whole match,
but Sandy Creek Blue edged out a narrow
16-14 win.