Hertfordshire Mavericks claimed their first win of the new FIAT Netball Superleague season with a 60-40 victory over Leeds Carnegie.
Herts side see off Leeds
Hertfordshire Mavericks claimed their first win of the new FIAT Netball Superleague season with a 60-40 victory over Leeds Carnegie.
Jo Walker was on song early for Leeds, who scored from a turnover to take a two-goal lead before the manoeuvre was reciprocated and improved on by Mavericks, who ended the first quarter 15-12 up.
The second quarter was a messy affair. Leeds failed to process as much ball as they would have liked while Mavericks suffered from a communication shut-down.
Passes were flying wild into empty court space, there were fumbles, bumbles and stumbles. It was summed by Mavericks captain and GS Louisa Brownfield who had one of those quarters; the ball looked like it was in, only to bounce out off the ring, or veer off the edge. Still, something was going right as by half time the home side were seven ahead.
It got even better for Herts in the third quarter when young Shaunagh Craig pulled on the Mavericks purple GA bid.
The teenager showed no sign of nerves and may even have helped steady the mood for her captain.
Leeds struggled to feed their shooters enough ball after Mavericks had moved Layla Guscoth into GK, with Hazel Schofield coming on to GD. The changes upset the visitors' attack and resulted in a storming 21-9 quarter win for the home side.
Vicklyn Joseph took on shooting responsibilities for the last 15 minutes and with the rest of her shooting colleagues wearing the Mavericks purple, banked an over 80% success rate.
It was a quarter that saw the home side consolidate their advantaage and chalk up their first win of 2011.
Hertfordshire Mavericks head coach Maggie Jackson commented: "All credit to Leeds for what they did at the beginning I think they did jolly well. We started to pull away and I still think we should have won by 35."
Speed
Leeds captain Jo Davies added: "We tried to use our speed against Mavericks which was really really good, so we need to keep on doing that and we need to use the versatility in our squad."
Leeds Carnegie's co-coach Lisa Ferneyhough was pleased with her team's attitude and execution: "There was some good sets of play from the girls and it goes to show we can compete with the big teams in this league. Just disappointing that small things let us down a bit."
Mavericks captain Louisa Brownfield added: "It was great for everyone out there today and playing in different formations. It's also nice to see the combinations working. It just proves once again that Mavericks have a lot of depth and can swap and change and it still works."
