Matrics defeat Phoenix to consolidate second spot on Subway Cup ladder

Contours Matrics have defeated Health and Life Phoenix 50-45 in their entertaining round 15 match at Netball SA Stadium on Friday night.

Both sides were at full strength and demonstrated the kind of match spectators will see come finals time.

The Matrics victory keeps them 7 points clear of third placed Spring Gully Newton Jaguars, while the loss for the Phoenix dropped them to fourth on percentage.

The Phoenix, while losing, should not be too disappointed as their recent good form continues to build at the right time of the season after pushing a strong Matrics side right to the final whistle.

The Matrics got the better start moving out to a 5 goal lead after 6 minutes, combining good pressure in defence with good ball movement in attack to create shooting opportunities.

Some good defensive work from Phoenix co-captain and GK Dalice Kennedy starting paying dividends as her side settled through the mid-court. After a well-fought quarter, the Phoenix took a 1-goal lead at quarter time after Kylie Jarrett scored on the whistle.

The second quarter started with a battle of defence as both sides forced turn over after turn over in an entertaining patch of the match. Dalice Kennedy continued her good work from the first quarter as her namesake Sarah Kennedy led the Matrics defence from GD.

After a scoreless 4 minutes of play Matrics GA Laura Packard got the opening goal of the quarter. It took 7½ minutes for the Phoenix to score through GA Mel Rowland and by that time Matrics held a 5-goal advantage. But, once again the Phoenix fought back to reduce the lead to 1 at halftime.

The third quarter could possibly have been the difference as the Matrics once again got the better start moving out to a 6-goal lead mid way through the quarter.

Matrics WA Sheree Wingard was having a very good match on the edge of the circle and combined well with C Kyra Brown to control the mid-court and keep their lead in tact. At the final break the Matrics led 4 goals.

Phoenix continued to challenge a composed Matrics side throughout the final quarter getting the lead down to 3 goals. Good defence again from Sarah Kennedy and WD Melissa Apthorpe along the defensive third line kept the Phoenix at bay.

Matrics coach Jacqui Illman while happy with an important victory noted that there was still improvement in her side particularly after letting a good side like the Phoenix back into the match.

“We did start well in each quarter which was pleasing, it’s something we need to work on though for the quarter, to finish off the quarter much better because we did let them back in almost every quarter.

“We had some good drive out of defence and I thought Sheree came up the middle really nicely which opened it up for us going into attack.

“It was an important one because Phoenix are third on the ladder and have been really good form, they had a bit of shaky patch but the last few weeks they’ve looked really good so it was an important win for us.” She said. 

Phoenix coach Lee-Anne Cummin said that while disappointed with the loss, her side could take plenty of positives away from the match, particularly continually coming back at Matrics.

“You can’t afford to give teams like Matrics a start like that at the start of every quarter but pleasing signs were that we were able to pull it back, we didn’t let it blow out.

“Whilst your never happy with a loss and you’ll never say a loss is a good thing, there are plenty of positives to take away from the game.

“I thought our defensive end was awesome, they gave our attack end plenty of ball, I thought our decision making under pressure tonight was good, it was actually our decision making when we weren’t under pressure that was more poorly executed.” She said.

In other round 15 matches, ETSA Contax had another big win against The Royal Cougars defeating them by 22 goals, 69-47. Spring Gully Newton Jaguars came through an incredibly tense encounter with Stellar Homes Garville winning 52-51 moving them back into the top 4. 

The battle for the finals is heating up in the middle of the table with four teams separated by just 3 points. every match will be vital in the run to the finals.

Quarter-by-quarter Scores:

Q1:   Matrics  12 – 13  Phoenix

Q2:   Matrics  22 – 21  Phoenix

Q3:   Matrics  37 – 33  Phoenix

Q4:   Matrics  50 – 45  Phoenix

Shooting Match Statistics:

Matrics   50/64   78.12%

C. Lange:   33/40   82.5%

L. Packard:   10/13   76.92%

S. Hentschel:   7/11   63.64%

Phoenix   45/58   77.59%

K. Jarrett:   33/39   84.62%

M. Rowland:   8/12   66.67%

M. Gibb:   4/7   57. 14%

Subway Cup shooters hitting the mark in 2012

Scoring goals is pretty important in Netball and plenty have been scored in the first half of the 2012 Subway Cup season. But which Subway Cup sharpshooter is leading the way so far?

Not only is their poise under pressure important each week but considerably more so as the competition gets closer to the serious end of the season.

After the opening 14 rounds of the Subway Cup, the top ten shooters in both goals scored and accuracy have been listed below.

Leading the way is Health and Life Phoenix goaler Kylie Jarrett scoring 340 goals from her 12 appearances so far this season, helping her side reach third on the ladder.

Just two goals behind Jarrett is Contours Matrics’ Laura Packard nailing 338 goals for her side, also after 12 matches.

Jess Hazel from the Spring Gully Newton Jaguars completes the 300 club with Jarrett and Packard, tallying 312 goals from her 11 appearances and will be hoping for plenty more in the coming weeks after the Jaguars’ slide to fifth on the ladder.

Hot on their heels are Chelsea Lemke from ETSA Contax with 280 goals and Jess Roberts from The Royal Cougars with 266 both over the 250 mark with 8 rounds still to play.

Kath Knott of Woods Panthers is the most accurate goaler, shooting at 93.1 per cent. She also averages 43.1 goals a game scoring 216 after just 5 appearances, an excellent effort.

Contours Matrics’ Cody Lange is the only other player to shoot at better than 80 per cent for the first 14 rounds. Lange has landed her 184 goals with an 83.26 per cent accuracy rate.

While not as prolific with her goal shooting as some of the other players Stellar Home Garville’s Hayley Edge is the third most accurate in the league shooting at 79.79 per cent.

Edge just a little more accurate than Woods Panthers goaler Kim Walker who is shooting at 79.55 per cent.

Player (Team)	Goals	Player (Team)	Accuracy %
Kylie Jarrett (Phoenix)	340	Kath Knott (Panthers)	93.1
Laura Packard (Matrics)	338	Cody Lange (Matrics)	83.26
Jess Hazel (Jaguars)	312	Hayley Edge (Garville)	79.79
Chelsea Lemke (Contax)	280	Kim Walker (Panthers)	79.55
Jess Roberts (Cougars)	266	Mel Rowland (Phoenix)	78.86
Georgie Virgo (Garville)	228	Jess Roberts (Cougars)	78.47
Kath Knott (Panthers)	216	Laura Packard (Matrics)	78.42
Casey Gregory (Contax)	196	Jess Hazel (Jaguars)	78.39
Stephanie Hentschel (Matrics)	191	Georgie Virgo (Garville)	78.08
Cody Lange (Matrics)	184	Kylie Jarrett (Phoenix)	77.45

The Royal Cougars move to fourth with impressive win against Woods Panthers

The Royal Cougars have moved to fourth on the Subway Cup ladder after defeating Woods Panthers 52-30 in a solid team performance on Saturday at Netball SA Stadium.

The win sees the Cougars move to fourth spot on the ladder moving above both Woods and Spring Gully Newton Jaguars as the race for the finals begins to heat up leading into the final round of matches.

While both sides were looking sharp early in the match, it was the Cougars who moved out to 3 goal lead after good defence from GK Tamsin Petzer and GD Paris Vince. From there the Cougars did not look back.

Through patience and precise ball movement in attack, and good movement from GA Joanne Nixon, the Cougars dominated most of the first quarter leading by 11 goals. But a strong finish with 3 goals in a row from Woods cut the lead to 8 at quarter time.

The second quarter was a much more even affair with Woods getting into the game and showing some of their recent good form. They could not break the Cougars composed attack and the lead remained at 8 goals midway through the quarter.

Although Woods shooters Emma Thomas and Kim Walker had a much better quarter, the Cougars still won it by 3 goals. The halftime lead was 11 goals to the Cougars, who did not look like slowing down.

Quick transitional play from the Cougars continued their momentum early in the third quarter as they started to take control of the match. C Leigh Waddington was excellent across the court and linked well with WD Ashton Hurn who was picking off bad Woods passes.

Woods could just not get anything to click during the match, scoring just 4 goals for most of the quarter. Some late possession enabled 3 late goals but by this stage the Cougars had moved out to a 16 goal lead at the final break.

Cougars’ shooters, Jess Roberts and Joanne Nixon, making things difficult with a 100% third quarter.

Woods started the final quarter well scoring a couple of goals but the Cougars were on fire and looking for a big win which they got by 22 goals. Waddington continued her strong performance and this showed late in the quarter.

While chasing a loose ball, Waddington and Woods GK Tara Gagliardi combined for a big collision that saw the Cougars C crash to the floor. Waddington received an accidental knock to the head as both players competed for the ball with intent.

Cougars coach Scott Waddington said that the whole side contributed across the court and that the structure was good.

“It was a good even contribution, we thought that we did exactly what we wanted to do structurally and defensively was very good.

“We’ve really focussed this year on improvement, every game we want to improve a little bit more from the game before.

“We get three rounds this year it gives us three cracks at every side, we’re back to round 1 against Contax, we’re hoping for a competitive effort with every team we come back to face leading up to finals.”

Injured Woods player Beth Shimmin said the match was tough to watch from the sideline and that the side is still confident that they regain form leading up to the finals.

“It was really tough to watch from the sidelines, I definitely wanted to be out there. Just when it’s not going your way, I guess it’s not going your way.

“We’ve managed to get the bye leading into final round, so we’ll definitely be working hard on a lot of things.

“I’m pretty confident coming into the last round that it will just fall into place.” Shimmin said.

In Friday night’s games ETSA Contax easily defeated Stellar Homes Garville 66-31 and the Health and Life Phoenix moved to third sport defeating Spring Gully Newton Jaguars 49-41, which moves the Jaguars to fifth spot on the ladder.

Quarter-by-quarter scores:

Q1:   Cougars  15 – 7  Panthers

Q2:   Cougars  29 – 18  Panthers

Q3:   Cougars  41 – 25  Panthers

Q4:   Cougars  52 – 30  Panthers

Match Shooting Statistics:

Cougars   52/60   86.67%

J. Roberts:   34/39   87.18%

J. Nixon:   14/17   82.35%

S. Carver:   4/4   100%

Panthers   30/46   65.22%

K. Walker:   13/16   81.25%

E. Thomas:   13/20   65%

K. Zanardo:   4/10   40%