Hard Home Game...

Saturday 29th November 2008
Lost 23 - 45

After two loses Mavericks Youth wanted a win to boost team morale. We’d worked hard at training and looked specifically at areas that needed improving. As a squad we felt confident in our teams abilities and were ready to put what we had done in training onto the court.

Unfortunately the first quarter saw West Midlands Warriors storm ahead scoring 12 goals from 18 attempts. Mavericks Youth only managing to score 4 goals from 10 attempts. It was a rocky start for the Youth team who struggled to settle down. Shooting stats were an issue in this quarter but as the team settled throughout the game the shooting stats began to settle too. Mavericks Youth struggled to kept possession of the ball and although certain parts of the the game had improved since our last match we found it hard to get the ball into the shooting circle.

In the second quarter West Mids scored 7 from 12 attempts at goal. Mavericks Youth scored 6 from 12 attempts. This was the closest quarter, but West Mids held onto their 9 goal lead. However the defence improved massively this game turning over a considerable amount of
balls from the previous quarter. Consistent man to man marking was evident throughout the whole game and the crowd enjoyed the pressure that each player had to work past.

The third quarter saw Zoe come on as shooter. It became evident throughout this quarter that the attack were struggling to get the ball into the circle. Mavericks Youth had far fewer attempts at goal this quarter compared to West Mids. At the end of the quarter West Mids scored 17 out of 21 attempts at goal to Mavericks Youth 6 from 12 attempt at goal. A disappointing result in this 15 minutes for the squad following such a close 2nd quarter.

In the fourth quarter a change in the attack improved the rotation in the circle, making it easier to feed into the shooters. The score seemed to improve in this quarter. West Midlands had considerably more attempts at goal scoring 10 goals from 17 attempts and Mavericks Youth could not match this tally.

Jo Munnion (Mavericks Youth Head Coach) said "we know that the squad has had a rough start to the season but are confident that we have turned the corner and are proud of the squads performance today".

Although Mavericks Youth lost this game, there was a definite positive improvement from the last game. Each of the girls never let their heads go down and gave each quarter 110%. The squad showed that they could function as a work as a team and have the desire to improve. With the continued hard work at training Mavericks Youth will continue to develop. It is without doubt that the best is still to come from our squad.

By Fran Plom

Mavericks Official Photographer
for this match:
Kate Schofield
Contact:
photographs@
mavericksnetball.co.uk
for more information