Category: USW Netball

The third quarter the game became even more tense as momentum began to change. After the gap had closed just before half time, USW fought back with a a four point swing to lead 28-27 at the end of the third quarter.

Megan Jones starred in the third quarter scoring eight of the nine points scored for USW.

Later in the game the tension never seemed to disappear. After fast end to end play the game did not slow down and neither side seemed to be able to break away. 

USW keeping the game alive after being far behind in the first bringing the game to 39-39 after an early slip behind in the fourth quarter. Bringing on extra time.

Extra time was not as tight, in particular the first half. MET failing to register a single score in the first period of extra time and USW scoring 7 unanswered nearly blew the game apart right there and then.

An extra time second half come back was attempted by MET but could not complete it as USW stood strong.

The game then ended 49-44 to USW after a 26 and 22 point day for Abigail Meredith and Megan Jones.

The game started off relatively close in the first and second quarters with the score gap never being too far out of reach. 

This changed in the second half as the scoreboard started to snowball out of USWs favour.

Player of the match George Ellams believes, “It’s just communication in the team, obviously it’s the first time we’ve played as a merge team of USW team 4s and thirds.”

With this in mind this is what was said on the new mixture of teams, “Overall we play quite well as a team. I think it’s just communication and training and practice that we need to put in to just refine some silly mistakes.”

Talking on her performance alone after getting player of the match, George had this to say, “It’s better than I have played in previous matches before, I feel there was a couple of small mistakes but they happen in every netball game, and yeah overall I feel like I played quite well.”

Despite the performance it was not enough to change the teams fate. The two teams merging will have two weeks of practice to try and perfect this new side as they play Aberystwyth 2s away.

“We knew it would be a tough game” says USW Netball 3rds captain Katie Jones. 

USW faced Cardiff Medics at the sport park in a 48-9 defeat in what was a strong defensive performance despite the end result.

The beginning of the game was much more of a close game after captain Katie Jones stated that, “Going into the game against Cardiff Medics we knew it would be a tough game however we aimed to keep our morale high.” 

This showed early on as the Medics only held a narrow lead throughout the first quarter as the game plan was in good effect to not let the opposition run away with the game from the first whistle.

Later on despite the best defensive efforts the game plan started to fall apart and the opposition started to run away with it. Katie Jones had this to say, “Throughout the entire game our defence stayed strong to stop the ball getting down the court too quickly.” 

It ended up being a disappointing game as everyone knew what needed to be done but just couldn’t get everybody working smoothly enough with each other to get the results the team wanted. 

On top of this, captain Jones briefly mentions other points that the team need to work on in the near future. “After this game we will have to go away and improve on small silly errors that we are making such as our passing and intercepting.” 

If the team practice well with each other after these few points hopefully the team can be heading back in the right direction.

The third quarter appeared to be much more of the same as the game was just as tight at the start of the half. 

This took a turn as USW took advantage of having substitutes and keeping the teams energy as high as they could.

As the quarter wore on Sophie Donaldson took the spotlight putting separation between USW and Winchester as the away side started to tire.

The last ten minutes of the third quarter proved to be a vital turning point in the game as USW had managed to over double the lead they had at the half.

Despite the differential between the two sides both Beryl Okeyo and Olivia Steward put in a great last quarter performance to try and put their team within a chance at clawing the game back.

Unfortunately for the away side the damage had been done in the third quarter and was not recoverable. The last quarter was perfectly game managed by USW as the score stayed 11 goals apart as it had been at the end of the third.

After the game finished 46-37 USW can be happy with not an easy victory but a well-rounded performance in which the whole squad performed when needed.

After the first half ended 2-13 both teams looked to take a much more clinical approach to the second half. To make their chances count. 

Aberystwyth took a bigger foothold in the third quarter after Goal Attack Anna Clifton scored 8 of the 11 goals for Aberystwyth with a very impressive performance. 

USW defended very well in the third quarter as Aberystwyth had many more chances than the goals they scored leaving the away side with a lot of missed opportunities.

The fourth quarter was when USW were at their strongest throughout the encounter. They impressed by doubling their score in the fourth quarter compared to the first three. 

Despite their best efforts USW were unable to contain Aberystwyth as the combination of Anna Clifton, Charlotte Hanson and Ellie Hutchings scored over and over to build a lead with great individual performances.

In the end this result is USW fourths best defensive performance of the season so far and only one goal short of their best attacking display of the season so still many positives to work off of for the future.