Team Bath produced a spirited fight back against top of the table Surrey Storm before going down 65-52 in the Fiat Netball Superleague fixture held last Friday night at the University of Bath.
The visitors did the damage in the opening quarter, which they took 21-8. But Team Bath battled back to take the second quarter by two goals and Storm edged both the third and fourth quarters by a single goal to secure the points.
Jess Garland, Team Bath head coach, said, “We had enough possession and turnover ball to stay with them in the first quarter. However our response was really good and definitely a step forward from Monday night’s game. But we’re going to have to start off a lot better in our remaining fixtures.
“It was good to see some fight and some intelligent thinking out there from some young and inexperienced players. We were playing a team that are expected to finish in the top-two, but we showed there wasn’t much between us.
“We showed some good learning from our game on Monday and hopefully that will prepare us well for our next games.”
Tamsin Greenway, Storm’s player and coach said, “We killed them in the first quarter and we got the win. We kept the lead and we put a big score on the board, so I’m happy.”
Storm arrived in Bath with a 100 per cent record after winning both of their opening games. Their starting seven featured four former Team Bath players, including the experienced England attacking trio of Rachel Dunn, Pamela Cookey and Tamsin Greenway.
They got off to a flier, with some clinical finishing by Dunn and Cookey and built up a 13-goal advantage in the first 15 minutes.
It looked ominous for Team Bath. But, roared on by a 1,200-strong crowd, Team Bath’s youngsters dug deep in the second quarter.
Eighteen-year-old University of Bath student Yasmin Parsons impressed coming on at wing attack for her first taste of home Superleague action, with another teenager, Sam Cook, showing maturity beyond her years marking the experienced Dunn.
The effervescent Mia Ritchie, meanwhile, was enjoying a decent midcourt battle against Storm captain Becky Trippick, supplying plenty of ball for Kadeen Corbin and Asha Francis to enable Team Bath to take the second quarter 17-15.
There was little to separate the two teams in the remaining quarters, with Team Bath using their possession well and patiently probing for weaknesses in Storm’s well marshalled defence, and with Corbin and Francis both keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
Fletcher and Cook’s defensive partnership grew as the game went on, with Trounce returning to the court for the final push in the last quarter.
Team Bath captain Asha Francis said, “It’s credit to the girls that after going down by 13 in the first quarter we fought our way back. It’s a steep learning curve, but we showed the fight that Team Bath has always had.”
More info: www.teambath.com/sport/netball/superleague/
Lizzie Flint, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
