England-based senior national netball goal shooters, Afeisha Noel and Kalifa Mc Collin teams enjoyed mixed results when Round 16 matches in the Vitality Netball Super League in England took place on the weekend.
First up, Noel looked on from the sidelines with an injury as Stars ended a our-match losing streak with a comprehensive 64-47 blow-out of Team Northumbria.
Stars, a joint partnership between the University of Worcester and University of Gloucestershire started quickly and led 15-11 at the end of the first quarter and extended their lead to 28-23 at the half before exploding for 18 points in the third period to their opponents, 13 for a 46-36 advantage.
The final quarter was more of the same as Stars again converted 18 goals while limiting Team Northumbria to 11 to seal a 64-47 triumph, its fifth win from 16 matches, for 15 points, six more than its opponent on the ten-team table.
It was the first win for Stars since beating defending champion Surrey Storm back on April 24, 66-62. A former Fire Service sharp-shooter Noel was ruled out for the remainder of the season following a knee injury. She suffered a tear to her anterior cruciate ligament during the away match against Team Northumbria on April 1.
Back then Stars coach, Mo’onia Gerrard, said: “Unfortunately Afeisha (Noel) sustained an injury a few weeks back that scans have shown is a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Afeisha (Noel) has played an important part in the opening games of the season so it is a blow to lose her presence on the court, but we wish her a speedy recovery and will offer her any support we can.”
However, Celtic Dragons, the team of Mc Collin stayed rooted at the bottom of the table, after a seventh straight loss, 44-74 to Loughborough Lightning at Sir David Wallace Arena.
From early on league leaders Lightning applied the pressure on the Dragons and stormed to a 17-12 first period lead which they widened to 41-19 by the half-time whistle to put any doubt about the outcome to rest. The third period saw Lightning expanding its cushion to a 30-point lead, 60-30 after outscoring their opponents, 19-11. But in the final quarter, 21-year-old Mc Collin and her team-mates showed a little more fight and managed to go goal-for-goal with Lightning, 14-14, to keep the margin of defeat down, to 30.
Individually, Mc Collin has impressed in her debut season with the Scottish club, with 442 goals from 474 attempts at league best 93.2 per cent shooting average while her team-mates Eleanor Roberts has contributed 239 from 294 attempts, at 81.3 per cent shooting average.
With two rounds of round-robin matches left to play, Lightning leads the table with a 15-1 record and 45 points, nine more than Wasps Netball and Manchester Thunder as the three teams have sealed Big-Four semifinal places. The final semifinal spot will be decided between Storm and Team Bath, both on 30 points from 10-6 record and two matches left as well.
Sirens is next at 7-9 and 21 points, six ahead of Hertfordshire Mavericks, the former club of T&T standout, Samantha Wallace, now a member of Suncorp Australian Super League club, New South Wales Swifts. In their remaining matches, Dragons entertain Wasps Netball on Saturday May 27 and close out the season at home as well to Team Northumbria on Saturday June 3 while Stars host Mavericks tomorrow (May 26) and end the season at Manchester Thunder on June 3.
Over in the Suncorp League in Australia, 23-year-old Toco-born Wallace and the Swifts will return to Qudos Bank Arena for their final match of the season in recent rivals the Firebirds in Round 14 on Saturday.
The Swifts, runner-up last year, but forced to rebuild after a number of players were drafted by expansion teams currently sit third from bottom of the table with a 3-1-9 record on the eight-team table with seven points, just ahead of West Coast Fever (2-0-11) with six four points, while Adelaide Thunderbirds have two points from a 1-0-12 record.
Melbourne Vixens and Sunshine Coast Lightning are joint top with 21 points from identical 10-1-2 record, a point ahead of Giants Netball (10-0-3) while Magpies Netball, fourth with an 8-5 mark and 16 points while Queensland Firebirds with their 6-1-6 record and 13 points are still in the hunt with one match left to play. Individually, Wallace who was voted as the Skysports Vitality Super League Player of the Year in England after leading Mavericks to fourth spot and ending the second best scorer has netted 475 goals from 533 attempts, the fifth best.
Magpies’ Australian international Caitlin Thwaites leads with 555 goals from 603 attempts, just ahead of her international team-mate Caitlin Bassett of Sunshine Coast Lightning (550/585) while Malawi’s Mwai Kumwenda (481/519) and Jamaican Romelda Aiken of Firebirds with 480 from 588 attempts are third and fourth respectively.