Wasps beat Team Bath to open up race for Superleague semi-final spots
Saturday 16 June 2018 23:09, UK
Champions Wasps booked a return to the Vitality Superleague semi-final with an impressive 58-40 victory over Team Bath on Friday night.
A pivotal Round 17 got underway at Team Bath Arena, with a win for the defending champions moving them three points clear of Loughborough and Manchester Thunder and could also see them secure a top-two finish by Monday night when they face Mavericks on Sky Sports.
Earlier in the day Wasps, who won the title in their debut year last year, had confirmed that should they secure a top-two finish, their home semi-final would be played at the University of Worcester with the Ricoh Arena already in use.
They went a long way to securing that target with a dominant 18-goal win over potential semi-final opponents sounding an ominous warning that the defending champions are back to their best, with back-to-back victories following their only two defeats of the season.
"It was a really challenging game for us against a very good Bath side with some great players," said director of netball Tamsin Greenway.
"We stood up to the pressure and I was really impressed. We have to be proud to have made the top four but the job isn't done and there is a lot of hard work still to do."
An evenly-contested first quarter turned on the consistency of Wasps duo Natalie Haythornthwaite and Rachel Dunn, whose accuracy under the posts helped forged a six-goal lead in the final five minutes of the quarter.
It was more of the same in the second as Bath matched the defending champions for defensive effort but could not match the relentless attacking ball into Dunn, who was making no mistake.
The visitors repelled a mini-fightback that saw Bath draw to within three at one stage, but a 30-21 half-time lead for Wasps meant Bath were facing another mountain to climb.
Having come so close against Loughborough last week when they fell short in the final seconds, Bath's 1300 crowd roared them out for the second half.
Again Bath closed the gap, this time to five goals, only to see Wasps pull away again and despite Chelsea Lewis' effort in attack, it was Greenway's team who took an 11-goal lead into the final quarter.
Lewis and Paige Reed combined well in the final quarter as Bath again closed the gap but the experience of Wasps saw them ease home in the final minutes for an impressive victory.
Bath's defeat opens up the race for the final spot; having gone into the game holding a three-point advantage over fifth-placed Mavericks, the loss now means the race will go to the final weekend and is now out of their hands.
Going into Saturday's action Mavericks have three games remaining to Bath's one, but Mavs face Loughborough on Saturday before travelling to Wasps on Monday, live on Sky Sports, but even two defeats will not end their hopes after Bath's defeat.
Bath finish the regular season against Manchester Thunder next weekend while Mavericks will play a third game in six days when they travel to Sirens on Thursday.
Our live coverage continues on Monday as Wasps entertain benecos Mavericks live on Sky Sports Mix, channel 121, which is free for all Sky customers, and Action from 6.45pm. Centre pass is at 7pm when the game is also available on Main Event
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