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Around the Courts: Division 2 Semi-Finals

Around the Courts: Division 2 Semi-Finals

By Stephanie Smarrelli

A Grade

Crib Point have booked themselves a spot in the grand final, defeating Langwarrin by 11 goals on Saturday afternoon.

Goal-for-goal to start, Langwarrin settled into the match quickest, making the most of Crib Point’s errors with a few wayward passes hindering the Magpies early. Wing attack Sara Drain was fast for the Kangaroos, hitting the circle edge with precision to safely feed into the shooters Brooke Kiely and Emily Bennet. 

Four goals up at quarter-time, Langwarrin looked solid, however, glimpses of brilliance from Crib Point in the first quarter from defenders Dionne Douglas and Tessa Moncrieff paired with sharp shooting from Ebony McDermott and Karly Wappett meant that danger was looming.

Crib Point turned the pressure up a notch in the second quarter, forcing turnovers and capitalising off missed goals from Langwarrin who were now shooting against the wind.

The Magpies were clinical transitioning from one end to the next with their midcourt providing plenty of options. 

Heading into halftime two goals up after only allowing the Kangaroos to shoot six in comparison to their 12 goals that quarter, Crib Point carried momentum with them into the second half.   

Crib Point’s Belinda Nerantzoulis was a formidable force on the court, zipping between the Langwarrin defenders and hitting the circle edge with ease, her feeds were strong landing to the advantage of the Crib Point’s shooters. Wappett in particular, shone in the third quarter doing what most players had struggled to do all day and score down the end of the court where the wind was doing no favours.

With the lead extended out to five goals, Langwarrin were behind and Crib Point worked hard to keep them that way in the final quarter. Crib Point executed an almost flawless quarter to finish the match with intercepts and deflections across the court being backed up by each other and finished off in the goal circle. 

As the match slipped away from them Langwarrin continued to fight with defenders Maree D’Souza and Jayde Aron staying up on their toes and deflecting a few passes, forcing the Magpies to take more time moving into the circle, however, Crib Point were good at recovering the loose balls.

The loss means that Langwarrin will now face Seaford on Saturday who defeated Hastings by 10 goals in the minor semi-final while Crib Point will have another week off.

Speaking to Crib Point’s Belinda Nerantzoulis after the match she said the Magpies were focussed on playing their brand of netball throughout the game.

“They kept coming at us, really tough opposition so we just had to keep our heads in the game and do what we do and stick to our game and not get dirty and not get physical just play clean netball,” she said.

Looking towards the grand final she said they would need to improve on their passing and that she was looking forward to the week off.

“Sometimes there was a bit of miscommunication, we would let the ball go and the player would move at the last minute so I think sometimes that decision making and being really accountable for where we put that pass,”

“It’ll be nice just to have a Saturday off and do what normal people who don’t have netball every Saturday do but it’s nice to be able to go into the grand final probably feeling fresh and have a bit of a rest in between not that we won’t stay focused we had a hard training session last week so we’ll do the same again this week,” Nerantzoulis said.

B Grade

Karingal have secured their place on grand final day with a seven-goal win over Langwarrin on Saturday.

Karingal were strong from the first whistle scoring off their centre passes through Rebecca Graham who was safely fed the ball through centre Amy Cunliffe and wing attack Kate Forsyth.

Langwarrin centre Sarah Johnston was good in her 150th, driving hard to the circle edge to safely deliver the ball while also controlling the transition from defence into attack.

The Bullettes were strong in defence with defenders Melanie Cotta and Emily Williams putting plenty of hands-over pressure to cause turnovers and put pressure on Langwarrin’s goal attempts. 

At the end of the first quarter, Karingal found themselves five goals up, however, Langwarrin trimmed the margin in the second.

With the first centre pass theirs, Langwarrin had an opportunity to reign the scores back in, however, a bad pass resulted in a turnover and on their next centre pass a fumble saw Karingal convert again.

The match went goal-for-goal for passages of the quarter with Langwarrin starting to get a hand to ball in defence which they were then able to convert through shooters Brenna Lamb and Melissa Wehner. 

Kangaroos goal keeper, Rania Waller was particularly good in the goal circle deflecting the ball and taking an intercept late in the quarter to minimise the potential damage from Karingal.

Langwarrin outscored Karingal 11 goals to eight in the second quarter to only be two goals down at halftime, however, the Bullettes fired in the third term.

Sensing the momentum shifting Karingal tightened up in defence again bringing Michaela Wilson on into goal keeper who provided tight one-on-one work that covered every easy feed into the circle alongside her partner Cotta, causing Langwarrin to feed in often on the third second after multiple drives from their shooters. An injury time from Karingal saw Wilson shift out to WD and Gracen Van Dort come into GK where she maintained the strong defensive pressure alongside Cotta. 

As pressure mounted Langwarrin stumbled, with passes becoming more and more frantic while Karingal managed to keep their cool and hold space well in the goal circle to extend their lead out to six by three-quarter time.

The final quarter between the two sides was much more evenly matched with the Bullettes only scoring one more goal than Langwarrin.

The Kangaroos did well in defence to not let the margin blow out much further as they continued to apply pressure, however, their attack end looked deflated even letting one loose ball roll away with no chase.

Langwarrin will be disappointed with the loss, however, will be given a chance to bounce back against Somerville on Saturday who defeated Devon Meadows by 25 goals in their semi-final.

Speaking to Karingal defender Melanie Cotta after the match she said she thought her team did well.

“I think our goalers did really well considering the really windy conditions and just sticking together right across the court and backing each other up as there was a lot of loose balls because of the wind,” Cotta said.

In terms of the margin at halftime, Cotta said Karingal knew if they stuck to their game plan they would be okay.

“It was still quite close at halftime so just to play our game and stick with what we know, we know if we play composed and not fall into the trap of their supporters and not let them get into our head that we would be okay in the end,”

With the week off now Cotta said she was looking forward to it but it would still be business as usual for the team.

“Looking forward to it but we’ll still train regular training and then we’ll probably train again on next weekend to keep up a bit of that fitness and not sit around doing nothing,” she said.

C Grade

Another grand final is on the cards for Karingal after the Bullettes defeated Chelsea by 29 goals in C Grade on Saturday.

The opening few minutes were fairly even before Karingal warmed into the match. Goal defence Tayla Crabtree led the way with a strong intercept giving the Bullettes their first opportunity to convert from a gain then moments later wing defence Kiah Steele did the same.

In the shooting circle, Leah McCartney and Stephanie Spicer confidently slotted goal after goal for the Bullettes while Chelsea struggled to keep possession.

After a 16 goal to two opening quarter, it was clear that the Seagulls would have to work hard to come back.

The second quarter was much better from Chelsea with shooters Georgia Holland and Rebecca Cameron holding space well in the goal circle. Feeders Kiah Stewart and Hayley Caling worked hard to hit the circle edge and put the ball to the advantage of their teammates.

The Seagulls only lost the second quarter by two goals, however, with the large margin already set up from the first quarter they found themselves behind by 16 goals at the main break.

Karingal tightened up their defensive pressure once again in the third quarter with defenders Lisa Carlton and Brittany Earle cutting off multiple drives from Chelsea’s shooters causing held balls and misplaced feeds that they then easily deflected. Through the midcourt wing defence Steele continued to do the same, easily reading the play and intercepting pass after pass from the Seagulls. 

A shining light for Chelsea, however, down in defence was goal keeper Jayde Mason who started to get around the body of her opponent better to deflect the ball and come off for a few intercepts during the third quarter, despite her teammates then being unable to convert.

Karingal were ahead enough at the start of the final to quarter to know they were going to be heading into a grand final, 24 goals in a quarter in the conditions of the match just wasn’t realistic for the Seagulls to turn around.

While some teams would start to relax, Karingal did not, they played out the match and kept the intensity up. Wing attack Tayla Sutton continued to push through to the circle edge, dodging between Chelsea’s defenders while her teammates continued to turn over ball after ball across the court.

The loss means Chelsea will now play on Saturday against Red Hill who defeated Devon Meadows by seven goals. While Karingal will wait to find out who wins that match to see who they’ll be up against for the premiership.

Speaking to Karingal ‘s Tayla Sutton she said the Bullettes were happy with the match.

“We just had a really great start that was our key for this game, come out strong which we did and we’re very proud of it then we kept that intensity up for the whole game and it resulted in the win and the score-line it did,” she said.

Sutton said the week off will help them but they’ll tackle it like any other week.

“Looking forward to the week off, there are a few little injuries we can settle those down in the week off, just another week of hard training, then just do the same thing we did this week prep early so we can get the job done on the day,” Sutton said.

D Grade

Another Karingal team has slotted themselves into a grand final, the D Grade team defeating Chelsea by eight goals.

The match was a bit scrappy to start with both sides fumbling the ball trying to find some rhythm, however, Karingal fired first,

Strong drives from goal attack Beth Nicoll and goal shooter Isabelle Caller gave the Bullettes’ midcourt plenty of options to pass into. Caller did the majority of the shooting, however, Nicoll’s work out front was instrumental for Karingal.

Wing attack Ellie Matongo was also a key playmaker for Karingal in the opening quarter, easily dodging around Chelsea’s defence into open space and pushing through to the circle edge time and time again.

Chelsea struggled to score in the opening quarter, however, their midcourters Kyrra Leigh and Breanna Locastro did a wealth of work and split the circle edge well.

Seven goals down at the end of the quarter, Chelsea improved in the second, winning the quarter by a goal as their connections began to click. 

Goal defence Megan Thomas paired well with keeper Wendt and wing defence Chelsea Johnson to slow down Karingal with deflections and hands over pressure hindering their speed into the goal circle.

Chelsea then backed that performance up in the third quarter, once again winning it by a goal to trim the margin down to five at the final break. 

Karingal started to lose their composure in the third quarter with Chelsea’s defensive pressure causing them to rush into making decisions that weren’t the safest and resulted in turnover after turnover, however, their fast start to the match kept them safely ahead.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, goal attack and one of their best on Saturday morning Samantha Cameron hurt herself during the opening minutes of the final quarter with what appeared to be a serious injury, play was halted for a few minutes and a stretcher was brought out to help her off the court.

The Seagulls lost some of their momentum with Cameron off the court, shooting against the wind Chelsea had trouble making the most of their opportunities and Karingal used those opportunities to strike. Karingal goal keeper Taylah Paxton was particularly good in the final quarter intercepting the ball and collecting multiple defensive rebounds to keep Karingal in control.

The loss means Chelsea will now face Red Hill who defeated Langwarrin by nine goals while Karingal will have a week off before the grand final.

Speaking to Karingal’s Ellie Matongo after the match she said she was happy with her team but for the grand final they’ll need to become more composed.

“It felt amazing we were all super nervous before the game but it just goes to show that when you put your mind to it you can do it,” she said

“We just need to slow it down sometimes, when we get too excited and we get a lead we just bomb it and throw it away we just need to slow it down,” Matongo said.

Under 17s

Seaford have locked themselves a position in the grand final after defeating Chelsea by six goals.

The Tigers started strongly with goal attack Jessica Tetley slotting in nine of her team’s 10 goals for the quarter. Chelsea shared the shooting a little more evenly in the first quarter with goal shooter Tia Weston scoring four goals while goal attack Rebecca Cameron scored three.

The Seagulls were stronger in the second quarter, winning it by two goals to only sit behind at halftime by a single goal, however, Seaford came out firing in the second half.

The Tigers made the most of their opportunities scoring 10 goals while keeping Chelsea to their lowest of six for the match.

The final quarter evened out again and Chelsea found themselves only one goal behind in the quarter scores, however, the Tigers had the better performance across more quarters and they were able to hang on.

Seaford now moves into the grand final while Chelsea will play Red Hill who defeated Hastings by three goals.