Team Bath stay top of Netball Superleague after big-match win against Wasps
Team Bath maintained top spot in the Vitality Netball Superleague table Sunday evening with a largely-composed 41-37 win against Wasps Netball, marred only by a scrappy final five minutes.
During that final five minutes, Wasps scored five times unanswered but Bath kept their heads to take the win.
Team Bath Head Coach Anna Stembridge said it was a worrying last few minutes after an otherwise good contest both in defence and attack against a “classy” Was[s side: “Would’ve liked to have seen us finish off, we got a bit sloppy in the last 5 minutes, but really proud of the girls and how they built and kept applying the pressure.
“We knew it was going to be tight, Wasps are a classy team, we were really clear on our game plan, but credit to them in the second quarter they tightened it up against us, so going into the third quarter we talked about opening it up, what we need to do to get quick ball speed and cherish possession.”
Team Bath worked the ball nicely in the first quarter, using the triangle very effectively early on in order to feed the ball into Kim Borger who was imperious during the opening twelve minutes. Wasps GK Josie Huckle had no answer as Borger scored 10 out of 10. Her footwork and handling was exceptional as was her combination play with Serena Guthrie. Bath led 13-10 at the first break and 21-18 in at half-time before easing out their lead to 33-27 at three-quarter time – opening up the game as coach Stembridge had asked.
Halfway through the final period they led 40-31 but a few uncharacteristic errors saw them pegged back to 40-36 before the eventual win.
Borger, delighted with the victory, said, “Really good game, we needed it, building from Dragons last time and it’s a really tough weekend with Thunder tomorrow. Some things we needed to address from last week. We anticipated it was going to be quite tough and physical, they’re a quality side but I think we just need to be a bit more clinical in our turn overs.”
Key contests in defence and attack his match with with Bath’s Serena Guthrie tussling throughout with Wasps’ Amy Flanagan and veteran Rachel Dunn at goal-shooter battling throughout with Bath’s Eboni Usoro-Brown at goal-keeper .
Layla Guscoth, at goal-defence put in an epic defensive set for Team Bath, winning multiple turn-overs at crucial times and justifiably taking the Rengen Player of the Match award.
Team Bath now take on third-placed Manchester Thunder tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday) at the Copper Box with the first centre-pass at 17.15.
Team Bath Netball is the Superleague franchise for the South West of England and has Academy Training Centres in every district – Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. The club is supported by its Principal Partner, chartered accountants Haines Watts, who are also a pathway partner, and by Rengen Developments and Centurion Chartered Financial Planners. O’Neills are Team Bath’s official kit supplier and 2XU are their compression wear supplier.
Courtesy of the Team Bath Press Office
