West Coast Fever were triumphant over Sunshine Coast Lightning with a 72-52 win at USC Stadium on Tuesday night.
The victory sees Fever within one win from Lightning in third place on the Suncorp Super Netball ladder. This was an important match for Fever to win and tested the team’s ability to bounce back after playing four games in 11 days including a physical contest against Vixens which resulted in a draw on Saturday night.
Fever Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich was proud of her team’s performance.
“The teams are challenging, the score line doesn’t represent the physicality and the contesting that was out there and for us to be able to absorb those surges from the opposition I think we’re gaining a real maturity how we want to keep possession,” she said.
Fever continue to show they are a force heading to finals, not only is their attacking game on point, but so too is their mid-court defensive structures with Verity Charles and Jess Anstiss. Charles’ performance tonight earning her player of the match honours.
“The amount of defence our attack is providing, then allowing our defenders to get good set up and they’re really connected at the moment, so we keep taking on the challenges and keep trying to put our brand of netball out there,” Marinkovich said.
But Charles is not looking at finals just yet, as they look to get through the next three rounds of the home and away season.
“I don’t even know what day we are at; I’m just rolling along in hub life, I’m just taking one day as it comes,” Charles said.
West Coast Fever Captain, Courtney Bruce set the tone early for the night. She played in front of her opponent Cara Koenen and lead outside of the goal circle. In the first quarter Bruce had three deflections and one rebound, which put Fever ahead by seven goals early.
Fever’s last quarter showcased the club’s depth. Sunshine Coast mixed up their defensive structures, with Annika Lee-Jones (GS) and Karla Pretorius (GD) double-teaming Fowler. That’s where Teague-Neeld stepped up to the challenge and dominated the scoreboard with 11 goals including two super shots for the quarter and broke away to lead by a game high 20 goals.
“We want to be a full quarter team and to be able to put that score on in the last quarter, it means that our work rate’s high, the intent is there, and we are letting the ball go. I think if you keep persisting and keep backing each other in the connections keep coming,” Marinkovich said.
Fowler scored the final goal for the match finishing with 55 goals.
There was a slight bump in Fever’s road to victory as the Rebel Power 5 proved costly for Fever in the first term with Lightning’s Steph Wood scoring two super shots resulting in a one goal deficit, 15-16 at the first break.
But Fever are getting used to brushing off the setbacks and moving on quickly. The saying, patience is a virtue rang true for Fever in the second term as they piled on 21 goals to the Lightning’s 14.
Charles has become such an important part of the team with her long passes to goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler and turning around to shut her opponents around defensively. An intercept by the mid-courter in the second term proved the turning point for Fever in the second term as they applied three unanswered goals and a five-goal lead.
Alice Teague-Neeld helped Fever maintain the lead as she hit two super shots for the quarter.
The rest of the quarters started much the same as the second, with Lightning bursting out of the gates early, before Fever gained back control and dominated the remainder of each quarter to win all three quarters of the match.
Fever continued to improve and keep the pressure on as the game went on and they broke away from Lightning in the third term to take a 51-41 lead.
