A cold sports hall, saw the second half of the season underway and the first match of 2019. The opposition were team Magnet who were the last match of the 2018. Magnets started with the centre pass which was quickly turned over and straight into the opposition third to Grace and bingo, we were one up. Centre pass followed centre pass and the points kept racking up. A few minutes later we were 13-1 up without reply thanks to some great defensive work to deny Magnets access to the D and impeccable shooting by Grace and Lottie. Magnets then found the net before losing another 3 without return to hear the whistle blow with Eagles 16-02 ahead.
Q2 saw first blood to Magnets but intense pressure and great intercepts by Anna and Keira soon swung the quarter back our way. Some lovely linkage between Izzy, Amelia and the two shooters, together with precision shooting from Grace and Lottie saw Eagles take the quarter 16-3 to lead 32-05 at the half-way mark despite a little bit of untidiness creeping in towards the end.
Q3 opened with a Magnets centre pass, almost instantly turned over thanks to great intercepting by Keira. By now, the pressure on Magnets was relentless. Thanks to each member of the team defending like demons – all arms were up high defending every ball thanks to Friday night’s top training tip! – Eagles won Q3 18-3 and went into the final quarter with a 50-09 lead.
With a strong lead, it was time for Neil to mix things up a bit for the final quarter, which saw Grace playing GA, Lottie on GS, Holly as GD, Georgia in GK and Anna as WD. After a few initial fumbles as people got used to their new positions, Magnets responded well with some tight defensive work. However, Eagles quickly found their feet. The movement up the court and feed into the circle for some precision shooting was only matched by some fantastic intercepting and defending by Izzy, Holly and Georgia. Eagles completely shut out Magnet in the final quarter to win overall by 68-09.
This was a fantastic team effort with every player producing a great performance. Although hard to single any one player out, Keira was the well-deserved Player of the Match. Sorry Neil, we’ll try and get to 70 next time!