The Loughborough Netball 1st team faced an action filled match this Wednesday evening against their major rivals Leeds Met 1st team in their Big Match fixture. Loughborough led throughout the game, which eventually had to be abandoned during the third quarter due to an injury in the Leeds Met defence leaving the game at 21-14 and having to be replayed at a later point.
Loughborough and Leeds Met both entered this match undefeated and sitting in 1st and 2nd place in the table respectively. A small squad was set out for Loughborough with a few injuries currently in the squad and some England players out on the bench.
Loughborough led at the end of the first quarter 9-2 getting a comfortable start that didn’t cause the defence too many problems, but a few missed shots from Loughborough prevented them from pulling ahead further. A good connection between the centre and the shooters helps to feed the ball in to the circle making the most of the opportunities to shoot. Great runs along the back line from our goal attack left her free under the post and another Loughborough goal to be had.
The second quarter saw much of the same with Loughborough leading throughout and never looking under too much pressure from Leeds, missed shots both ends saw the score remained fairly low but Loughborough continued to pull ahead with the score 19-8 at the end of quarter two. The tight Leeds defence challenged the shooters but strong rebounding and another shot saw the ball safely in the net. The quarter saw strong communication in the defensive circle with the girls strongly holding their player in position and switching at the prime moment to gain an interception from the Leeds Met wing attack.
The third quarter begins with a similar pattern with fast rebounds the Loughborough goal keeper recovering the ball well on the backline and a solid Loughborough defence down court causing a three second call on the Leeds wing attack. Near the end of the quarter, a collision between the Loughborough shooter and the Leeds goal keeper saw the goal keeper on the floor with an injury, time is called so she can receive treatment but a suspected dislocated shoulder means she cannot be moved due to risk of worsening the injury causing the game to be abandoned by the Loughborough coach to be replayed at a future point.
A strong overall performance from the Loughborough side but they’ll have to do it again to maintain their position at the head of the table in the rearranged fixture.
