NETBALL
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TAMWORTH South and Hillvue had contrasting second round State PSSA Knockout netball competition wins on Thursday.
While Tamworth South was too strong for Werris Creek accounting for it 29-6 win, Hillvue only just pipped Tamworth Public 24-20.
It was tight all game with only a goal splitting them at all three breaks.
Hillvue trailed at the first but was up the other two.
There was still only a goal in it until about five minutes to go.
Hillvue coach Amy Hillenberg said it was a fantastic result for the girls. They haven’t had a netball team in the competition for a number of years and don’t have a team in the Saturday competition.
“Only one of our girls had played netball before,” Hillenberg said.
Most of them are basketballers. In fact two of the girls are away next week with the North West side.
“They’re just natural athletes,” Hillenberg said.
She said their passing game was a real feature particularly between centre Zali Lake and goal attack Shontaia Berry.
Their defence was also pretty strong and crucially late in the game were able to force a few turnovers.
“They were quite short compared to Tamworth Public but are very springy and quite quick,” Hillenberg said.
They all played well but it was hard to go past Berry, goalkeeper Sharnai McKee and Lake. She controlled the pace of the game well.
Tamworth Public coach Ashlee Sheedy said Hillvue just took off in those closing minutes.
“Their defence was too good,” she said.
“We couldn’t get the ball down into the circle to make the shots.”
Up the other end of the court their defence was also pretty good.
“We held them for quite a while,” Sheedy said.
She said they were all fantastic.
Like Hillvue they had girls that haven’t played netball before, but did have four players backing up from the side that were regional champions last year.
Tamworth South then overcame a slow start to beat Werris Creek.
“We had a bit of a rusty second quarter,” coach Kerry Floyd said.
“It was only 9-3 at half-time.
“But they really pulled away in the last quarter.
“They settled into a bit of rhythm.”
She didn’t want to single anyone out but said their two Year 5 girls stepped up nicely.
They had had a big win over West Tamworth in the first round.
Werris Creek had also had a good first-up win beating Timbumburi 24-nil.
Teacher Roxanne Harris said they did well against South and was impressed with their efforts.
“We’ve only got two netballers in our team,” she said.
“We held them in the first half but they got away in the second half.”
One of the things that most impressed her was their team-work and strong passing.