Students seek to add to impressive finals record
The long-term dominance of two teams continues after the finalists for the Wanganui Premier One Netball Championship emerged on Monday night.
Defending champions Phillips Electrical Wanganui High School will play Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau in the final next Monday night.
This is a match up that has dominated the grand finals since 2011, with three of the four encounters going the way of the school side.
Big winning margins were the order of the night on Monday in both semifinals, where neither of the victors took anything, least of all their opponents, for granted, preparing hard and playing their strongest line ups.
In the first game of the night, Kaierau pulled away in the final quarter with an impressive 10 goal run to win 55-39 over East Club Sports, while WHS dealt to Mint Cafe Marist A1 60-39.
It was not all one-way action in the first quarter of game one, however, with EC Sports displaying great speed through the court. Kaierau kept their feeders wide on the circle edge, making it difficult to get the ball into their shooters.
EC Sports were patient and willing to re-set the ball to the transverse line until their shooters opened up.
The first break saw the game tied 12-all.
The intimidating presence of Kaierau goal keep Kelera Kuruyabaki and her intent to hunt the ball in the second quarter, put doubt into the minds of the feeders and forced a number of errors.
Kaierau capitalised on the turnovers to lead 27-22 at the half-time break.
The third quarter saw changes from the Kaierau side, with coach Marama Cameron coming on to wing attack, Amy Archer to wing defence and Mel Crothers across to goal defence.
The changes were effective, with Cameron having more success combating the superb performance of EC Sports wing defence Deshannon Matthews, and the Kaierau defence continuing to pick up great turnover ball to go into the final quarter leading 39-31.
Cameron was very pleased with her team's performance noting how nice it was to see their game plan put into action. She highlighted, in particular, the performance of goal shoot Suzanne Guilford, who has been a stalwart of the team this season.
Guilford shot a remarkable 53 from 55 goals and is one of the two most accurate shooters of the competition with high volume.
The other, she and her side will face next Monday in the grand final when they meet reigning champions WHS.
Equally dominant in her performance was WHS captain and goal shoot Sam Murphy, who netted 50 from 54 under substantial defensive pressure, to lead her side to the win over Marist.
A strong start from both sides saw the match tied 11-all at the first break.
The speed, timing and accuracy of midcourters De-ann Tyrell and Kerwyn Morgan was sublime, as they worked tirelessly to supply great ball to their shooters. WHS headed into the half-time break ahead 28-17.
Marist made changes in the third quarter, with Briar Lourie coming on at goal keep, captain Te Atawhai McDonnell to goal defence, Javelle Pareka to wing defence and Sarah Bryant to wing attack.
The changes paid dividends for Marist, who won the third quarter 15-14 but still trailed 41-31 at the break.
High School kicked into top gear, out-running, out-playing and out-scoring Marist in all areas to take the final quarter 20-9 and secure a grand finals birth for the fifth time in their six-year Premier One history.