First Match Looks Promising for
Mavericks Youth 2007/8

Saturday 3rd November 2007
Won 49 - 37

The first match of the season and the Mavericks Youth team were eager to put what they had learnt in training into practice. The team started off with a good start, going a couple of goals ahead. But as Mavericks Youth got into the quarter the pressure throughout the court from Leeds was causing some unforced errors by Mavericks. Leeds used this in there favour to create shooting opportunities and take the lead away from mavericks. There was good movement driving the ball through the court from the Mavericks Youth centre court, towards the end of the quarter Mavericks put on some tight man to man marking to pressure the Leeds attack and turn over the ball. At the end of the first quarter Leeds were winning 11 goals to 6.

The second quarter saw changes for both ends of the Mavericks Youth team; in the shooting circle Zoe Murdoch game on as goal shooter and a change in the defensive circle saw Abi Ryan and Steph Collard switch positions. The Mavericks Youth team looked more hungry for the ball in the second quarter and defensively were so tight and forced the Leeds team to make errors, followed by positive feeds into the circle and some accurate shooting by Chantelle Hankin and the Mavericks Youth team pulled the score right back. At the end of the second quarter the score was 22-19 to Mavericks Youth.

The third quarter saw only one change with Adele Burnett coming on at centre. The third quarter saw Mavericks go down by a couple of goals as Leeds kept reminding them that they were still in the game and fighting to win. After some tight defending and good one – twos between the centre court and shooters Mavericks Youth were back in the lead again, with Leeds trailing 30 goals to 34.

The fourth quarter saw Laura O’Mahony replace Amy Fennelly at Wing Defence. With flowing movement through the mid court and some fast feeds into the circle the Mavericks side were able to increase their lead as the Leeds side started to tire, however this was to be expected with only 7 players for the full 60 minutes. The final score was 49- 37 to Mavericks Youth. Well done to both teams for a fantastic game!

By Kelsey Nolan
( England Talent 1 & Mavericks Youth)

Unfortunately there are no photographs from this match but we look forward to Kevin Jones, Official Mavericks Photographer bringing pictures of Mavericks Youth home matches in the future.

This match saw both squads missing quite a few players to the National Under 19 Championships which took place in Bournemouth.