Wednesday 10 April 2019 17:23, UK
The Vitality Netball Superleague 2019 is the competition that just keeps on giving, as soon as you think that you've got things straight in your mind it throws you another curveball!
In Round 13 the curveballs came in the form of London Pulse recording just their second win of the season against Saracens Mavericks and Storm halting Lightning's seven-game unbeaten run on Loughborough's own court.
So what will Round 14 bring to the table? Will another team near the bottom of the table take a big scalp? Will Mavs bounce back or will Wasps inflict a second defeat on them, in as many rounds? At the top, will Thunder press on at pace?
There's just so much to talk about so let's dive into the detail of all five matches...
This round starts in Bath where there's a huge clash between third and fourth.
Both teams had their unbeaten runs cut short in Round 13 and both are locked on 27 points in the table. Then add to that the intensity of the rivalry between the two and you have yourself a corking contest.
For Bath, being back on their home court will be important. They performed well against Lightning earlier in the season (a 75-50 victory) however their head coach knows that their opponents have evolved since then.
"Historically it has always been a great game against Lightning," said Anna Stembridge
"We had a really good performance against them in the reverse fixture, one of our best this season, but we are very aware of the form and results they have achieved recently so we are expecting a great display of netball between us.
"No team has an easy run-in and I wouldn't want one either, you want to earn your place in the top four."
The run-in that Stembridge mentions there is as follows - Lightning, Stars, Mavs, Thunder and Pulse and starting that schedule on a winning-note will be vital.
In Round 13, Lightning "never got into a rhythm" against Surrey Storm according to their director of netball and Sara Bayman didn't mix her words at full-time.
The disappointment was clear and the defeat meant that they missed the chance to move six points clear of Saracens Mavericks.
Despite the loss, the work of Vicky Oyesola was exceptional and there's no doubt that they will have had re-grouped in order to fly out of the blocks on Friday night.
In Round 13, Tania Hoffman's Celtic Dragons weren't able to find a way to halt the freight-train that is Thunder however back on their home court they'll want to put in a big showing.
Just before last week's match Kyra Jones announced that she will be retiring at the end of the Superleague season and this is her first home match since.
Jones will have one other run-out at home after this and as a unit, the whole team will lift for her.
When it comes to their opponents, Sirens just fell short in the final stages of their encounter with Stars but should take confidence from their outing.
For the Scottish outfit the rest of season is tough - with matches against Lightning, Wasps and Mavs within it - but they'll be taking a wider perspective on it with Scotland's prospects at the Vitality Netball World Cup in mind too.
Once again in Round 13, Manchester Thunder used all 12 squad-members during their 73-46 victory over Celtic Dragons and are marching confidently on.
At this point in the season, Thunder are a forceful groove, they're driving their own standards and it's going to take something special from Stars to dislodge them.
Thunder worked at a 94 per cent shooting accuracy against Dragons, slotting 73 of their 78 attempts, and did that through playing all four of their shooters.
For Stars, Round 13 saw them prevail over Sirens 49-40 and that created their first set of back-to-back victories this season.
Head coach Sam Bird praised her side's finish, they ended with a run of nine, and they also worked at a extremely high level of accuracy in their circle - 98 per cent. However, this weekend is a fresh challenge, it's a step up and a visit to Belle Vue will test them to the max.
Surrey Storm's win over Loughborough Lightning was a really well-executed victory from Mikki Austin and her side.
Sigi Burger was exceptional in their circle, providing the perfect focal point, and as a collective they managed to ride out their notoriously shaky third-quarter and not let that period of the match derail them.
Storm looked slick, they backed themselves to feed the ball early into Burger while in defence they also hit the high notes.
For London Pulse, their long-awaited second triumph of the season arrived in Round 13 as did the return of their captain to court.
After the full-time whistle, head coach Te Aroha Keenan spoke about the "buzz" that they were feeling and their first win since the opening-day of the season will have done wonders for them.
Losing regularly takes its toll on sides so don't underestimated the boost that being on the right side of the result will give them.
They've now proved that they can see it out against one of the big five and next the challenge is to do that all over again. The only issue for them is that Storm are also buzzing and are on a high of their own.
"Real talk" and "tough lessons" were learnt according to Saracens Mavericks' director of netball after their defeat and turning it on against Wasps is imperative if they want to keep in touch with the top-four above them.
The loss to Pulse will have hurt. Despite all teams being wary of those at the bottom of the table, none will have wanted to have been the first to be toppled and be caught out.
Back on their home court, the emotion will be there for Mavs and the last time that they met Wasps there was just four goals in it - 54-50 in Wasps' favour.
Mel Mansfield's team are going into this meeting off the back of a comprehensive 61-46 victory over Team Bath.
"That was potentially our best performance over the full 60 minutes tonight against really strong opposition," said Mansfield as she reflected on their Round 13 win.
"What I'm really pleased about is that we stuck to the game-plan and I reminded them to trust it at half-time and I really felt that they did that. It was really good for us that we won each quarter because we haven't done that for some time."
Since their 'tricky' period, Wasps have quietly gone about their business and will want to make a big statement on the road this weekend before returning to the Ricoh Arena for Easter weekend.
The Vitality Superleague continues on Sky Sports with four live games across a busy Easter weekend - from 1.45pm on Saturday April 21 we have Sirens vs Lightning and Pulse vs Thunder and then from 3.45pm on Sunday April 22 we have Storm vs Stars and Bath vs Mavericks.
