Mavericks second home match brought another sell-out crowd to the Hertfordshire Sports Village on Saturday afternoon. The aim to keep the momentum going following a really strong win against Team Bath last week.
The starting 7 of Keable, Guscoth, Buchanan, Candappa, S Corbin, K Corbin and Watson worked well. The team strategy was to delay and shut down the attacking opportunities for Northumbria and the full court defending from all the players worked to great effect. With fantastic turnovers in Mavericks’ favour they stormed to a 13-7 win in the first quarter. The team remained the same for the second quarter which was also won by a 6 goal margin taking half time to 26-27.
Half time changes for Hertfordshire Mavericks saw May come on at WD and Hutchinson come on at GK. Their physicality and technical superiority made a huge impact on Team Northumbria with Hertfordshire Mavericks dominating in every area of the court. The superb attacking play meant that the turnover ball the defence won, was not wasted by the superb shooting of Watson and Kadeen Corbin. The three quarter time score was 46-28. Louisa Watson had scored 91% of her shots netting 30/33 attempts.
Last quarter changes saw the introduction of Morgan-Smith at C and East at GS. The continued dominance of Hertfordshire Mavericks was too much for Team Northumbria to cope with who collapsed to 15-7 loss in the last quarter.
The final score was a whopping victory of 61-35.
Head Coach Sam Bird said “I was delighted with the team’s discipline on court, giving away very few penalties whilst applying so much pressure to the opposition. The speed of the attack was excellent backed up by top class shooting from all three shooters. Thanks to our fantastic home supporters who cheered us every step of the way”.
Layla Guscoth deservedly won the CuffLondon Statement Jewellery player of the match and was awarded a bracelet from the CuffLondon collection by Kate Chadwick-Jones.
Hertfordshire Mavericks head into a busy week taking on Yorkshire Jets on Monday 2nd March, away in Huddersfield followed by Surrey Storm on Saturday 7th March. This match is at the Copperbox Arena, Olympic Park, which has sold out with 5,000 fans making it the biggest crowd ever for a Superleague netball match. Sam Bird is looking for two huge performances from her squad to take victory in those games.
Report written by Sam Bird, Head Coach – photo by Lee @ Scrumpix.
