Team Bath beat Loughborough 56-31
Team Bath recorded the first victory of their 2012 Fiat Netball Superleague campaign with an emphatic 56-31 win at Loughborough Lightning last night (Monday).
The result sees Team Bath leap up to fifth place in the Superleague table and means they are still in a strong position to be in the top-four at the completion of the first phase of this year’s Superleague campaign, when the table splits into two tiers.
Head coach Jess Garland said Monday’s result is a confidence booster for her young team – but they need to make it back-to-back wins when they make the long trip to Team Northumbria on Saturday (18 February).
“It’s just one win, so we need to keep our feet on the ground. Most of our current group of players have never experienced winning a Superleague fixture, so this has to be a confidence booster for them,” she said.
“It was good to get a stake in the ground and get a win under our belts,” she added. “We now need to build on it and make sure we go into the Mavericks game at home after back-to-back wins.”
Team Bath have already played the top three teams in the Superleague – Northern Thunder, Surrey Storm and Celtic Dragons.
“From now on every fixture is winnable. We need to start each game a bit better, but I was really pleased with our second, third and fourth quarters against Loughborough,” said Garland.
Youngster Sam Cook again impressed in defence alongside Gemma Fletcher, with Asha Francis and player of the match Kadeen Corbin continuing to forge a strong attacking partnership.
The game also saw a late Superleague debut for student Kat Hayes, who came on at goal shooter for the final four minutes at a Loughborough injury time out.
Don’t worry if you missed the trip to Loughborough, it’s the ‘as live’ game on Sky Sports on Thursday (16 February) with screening at 6pm on Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports HD3 and at 11pm on Sky Sports 4 and Sky Sports HD4.
Team Bath travel to Team Northumbria on Saturday (18 February), before home fixtures against Hertfordshire Mavericks on Thursday 23 February and Yorkshire Jets on Friday 2 March.
For further fixture and ticket information please see the Team Bath website at http://www.teambath.com/sport/netball/superleague/
Team Bath line-up
Starting seven: GS Asha Francis, GA Kadeen Corbin, WA Yasmin Parsons, C Mia Ritchie, WD Becky Watkins, GD Gemma Fletcher, GK Sam Cook
Q2 changes: Corbin to GS, Francis to GA, Amanda Trounce to WA.
Q3 changes: Scarlett Williams to WD
Q4 changes: Francis to GS, Corbin to GA, Ritchie to WA, Trounce to C, Cook to GD, Fletcher to GK. Q4 injury time out change: Kat Hayes to GS, Emily Rose to GD
Shooting stats:
Asha Francis 22 from 25 – 88 per cent
Kadeen Corbin – 33 from 45 – 73 per cent
Kat Hayes 1 from 2 – 50 per cent
Quarter scores (Team Bath second):
Q1: 8-9
Q2: 6-17 (14-26)
Q3: 9- 15 (23-41)
Q4: 8-15 (31-56)
For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd on 01225 383518 or by email at press@matchtight.co.uk
You can also find out more about Team Bath at www.teambath.com , follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teambath or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/teambath
The University of Bath is The Sunday Times University of the Year 2011/12.
