Top Table Bath Within Reach!

Monday 16th March 2009
Lost 46 - 55

So the last game of the regular round robin season for Mavericks, at home, in front of a sellout crowd, to the table leaders! Most netball pundits would have money on a Bath victory. A team who had not dropped any points throughout the season and defeated Mavericks in December!

Team Bath’s victory 46- 55 doesn’t really reflect the nature of the game! Bath sprinted out of the blocks at the first whistle, was fast and sharp and racked up an 8 – 17 lead. Head coach Kendra Slawinski had Louisa Brownfield, Ella Clarke, Gemma Wiseman, Karen Atkinson, Stef Bello, Hazel Schofield and Naida Hutchinson as the starting 7. Bath dominated helped by the shooting of Rachel Dunn 13/14 and the strong defensive work of Bath’s Eboni Beckford-Chambers and Stacey Francis in disrupting Mavericks play, despite the score line Slawinski kept the same 7 for the next quarter.

After a few tweaks during the team talk and a lot of self analysis by the Maverick players’, they came out in the second quarter and certainly stepped up the pace and intensity. Hutchinson and Schofield took on the England shooting duo of Cookey and Dunn and Mavericks England shooting star, Brownfield, along with the youngster Clarke didn’t miss a shot in the quarter which had the crowd cheering madly! Clarke, encouraged by Brownfield grew in confidence as the match went on. She is developing into true Mavericks player. Despite being adrift 28 – 35, Mavericks never gave up and in the third quarter and really took the game to Team Bath.

Karen Atkinson’s move to wing attack, alongside Camilla Buchanan at C had impact. Defensively they turned over ball, and coupled with their speed and security of pass, presence on the circle edge and excellent feeding of the circle attack, resulted in Mavericks winning the third quarter 17 -12.

Team Bath made changes and re shuffled their starting 7 back to court for the final quarter. It was end to end interchange. Mavericks got back to within 4 goals of Team Bath, only for them to soak up the pressure and pull away again to win 55 – 46.

Mavericks coach Slawinski commented post game “On the night Bath were sharp particularly in the first half. We stepped up the pace in the second half and for those neutrals in the crowd, I’m sure it was a good game to watch.  Maverick’s got within four and had an opportunity but passing errors meant we missed out.”

Maverick’s are now in the playoffs, with everything to play for!