Fever Fall Narrowly Short of a Win

The West Coast Fever have had a tough last two weeks in the Suncorp Super Netball, narrowly missing out on a win in the final minutes of both games.

The Fever took on GIANTS Netball at home before flying to Sydney last weekend to go head to head with the New South Wales Swifts.

In some of their best performances of the season so far, the Western Australian side fell short by three goals and then just two the following week. 

Taking place on Sunday the 20th of April at HBF Stadium, the Fever’s clash with the GIANTS marked a significant milestone for Captain Natalie Medhurst. 

The round 10 match was Medhurst’s 200th National League game, inducting her into an exclusive group of just six players to have achieved such a milestone.

Despite coming away with a loss, Fever Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich was impressed with her sides improvement stating “I was proud of the fight we showed today, particularly in that second quarter to work ourselves back into a winning position.”

“We applied significant pressure across the court, especially at the defensive end where I thought we were very effective in limiting their opportunities.”

“The players are improving with every performance but their remains a handful of critical moments each week that we need to be more ruthless in executing f we are going to beat these top teams.”

Moving into their round 11 match against the New South Wales Swifts, the Western Australians were looking to replicate their performance from earlier in the season and bring home a second win against the Sydney based side. 

A slow start meant that at the first quarter break the West Coast Fever were behind by five goals, 15 to 10.

Towards the back end of the first half the Fever made in roads on the deficit putting their foot down to draw level heading into the main break.

The break proved to be beyond beneficial for the visiting side as they continued to apply the pressure, returning to the court to score eight of the first nine goals in the third quarter.

Having gained control in the third quarter the Fever went into the final quarter with a five goal buffer on their opposition.

Unfortunately the Swifts were able to regain their momentum from earlier in the game and backed by their home crowd they surged on to finish the game two goals up.

West Coast Fever Captain Natalie Medhurst said “our first half was not the type of netball we want to be playing.”

“We worked really hard to get back in the contest but to surrender a five goal margin and finish the game the way we did isn’t acceptable.”

“We don’t want to be a team that blames each other or outside factors, ultimately we have to be accountable for tonight’s performance and own our mistakes.”

With only three rounds left for the Suncorp Super Netball season, before finals, the Western Australians will be looking for a run of wins to head into the 2018 season with. 

The West Coast Fever are set to take on the Sunshine Coast Lightning this Friday night on the Sunshine Coast.