T&T’s Samantha Wallace was on fire as she scored 51 of 54 attempts as Hertfordshire Mavericks moved to the top spot in the Vitality Netball Super League after defeating Celtic Dragons 67–45 at Hertfordshire Sports Village, Hatfield, East London, England, on Monday night.
Celtic Dragons, winners of their last two matches, and third from bottom on the eight-team table, put up a good fight in the opening quarter. Dragons attacking play was slick and incisive and they led by two points after eight minutes.
But with the dead-eye shooting of Wallace, Mavericks narrowly led 15–13 at the conclusion of a keenly-contested opening period.
A quick turnover in the first 30 seconds of the second quarter, finished again by Wallace, set Mavericks up for a more dominant passage of play as the energetic play of the hosts started to wear down the visitors, and with the combination of stingy defence and sharp shooting, they turned a two-point lead into ten-point comfort at half-time.
Mavericks introduced Georgina Fisher for goal attack Sophie Hankin.
Fisher, the second most accurate Super League shooter this season with 93 per cent, had to play second fiddle though as Mavericks continued where they left off before the interval with Wallace, the star of the show as she clinically took every sniff of a chance afforded her in the final third to help open a 17-point lead at one stage.
However, the Welsh women, who were crushed 60–39 when both teams met on the opening day of the season, battled back to 44–32 going into the final quarter.
By the end, the home side had done more than enough to claim their seventh win in eight league matches by a 23-goal margin.
With the win, Mavericks moved to 21 points from eight matches and a 7–1 record, three points ahead of Manchester Thunder (6–1), while Team Bath (5–2) and Surrey Storm (4–3) are third and fourth, respectively, with 15 and 12 points, to occupy the four semifinal spots.
Wallace, who was T&T’s top player at the 14th Netball World Cup in Australia, last year, in helping her team to ninth spot, is now four goals off the top spot on the scoring table with 254 goals from 287 attempts and 87 per cent after her 51 goals outing from 54 attempts and 94 per cent shooting display.