V ’12: Netball in 28-43 loss

On Monday 27th February, the ladies of UWWNC went head to head with Coventry at the Coventry Leisure Centre, for what turned into an intense, aggressive and thoroughly entertaining game of netball. On paper Warwick looked good, with the first team being one league ahead of their rivals. However, Warwick’s confidence was dented when the team discovered that Coventry had managed to audaciously recruit a Loughborough Lightning Superleague player and two members of the England U21s squad.

The first quarter saw a relatively even game as each team battled hard for the ascendancy. As such, 7-7 was the score at the end of the 15 minutes. In the second quarter disaster struck. Risking life and limb (and in this case tendon) for UWWNC, the courageous goal defence Lauren Peters went down, snapping her Achilles in the process. Lauren has been an integral part of the first team for two years and it’s a huge loss to the Club for our final few BUCs games. We all wish her a speedy recovery and quick return to Warwick Netball! Following this incident, Warwick lost control of the game and finished at half time 16-21 down.

Ankle injuries appeared to be the recurring theme of the game as our Vice-Club Captain, Rachel Toner went off at the beginning of the third quarter after a feisty 20 minutes at wing attack. Replacing her was the equally aggressive Emma Mingers, who much to the crowd’s amusement had managed to square off with the Cov Superleague goal defence within five minutes of stepping on court. Although Emma was a good foot shorter, she remained undeterred and continued to fight for every ball for the remainder of the match.

The final quarter began with Warwick on the back foot, trailing Coventry by eight points. Our Club Captain and first team Captain Katie Sanders fought tirelessly to score point after point, but unfortunately the Warwick team were simply unable to catch up. The game ended with Warwick losing 28-43, but undeniably the score did not reflect the effort and skill demonstrated by the Warwick girls. Girl of the game was Imogen Rome-Hall who produced a stellar performance throughout the game. Thank you to everyone who came along to support our girls and well done to the first team, who never let their heads go down.