Marist show true grit to overcome early deficit

David Ogilvie | Friday, August 20, 2010 6:00

Marist's experienced goal keep Donna Jeffrey never lost hope in last night's Wanganui premier netball semifinal, even after the young Wanganui High School side had run Marist ragged for a nine-goal quarter time lead.

She was right, but only just. The addition of another of Marist's long-term stalwarts, wing attack Susan Osborne turned Marist's attack into a sharper weapon, and the defence of Jeffrey, Blanche Cloete (goal defence) and inexperienced wing defence Livi Wright got Marist home by just the one goal, 47-46 - a truly nailbiting match.

It wasn't a lot different in the second semifinal - it took Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau most of the match to subdue a fired-up Taihape team 37-34.

Kaierau was a hot favourite in this match, but Taihape often showed the way and led for a long period through the middle of the match, even going out to a five-goal lead a minute into the final quarter.

But Kaierau's tall goal shoot and skipper Jackie Abrahams, smarting from a finger in the eye, put on the heat, along with a revamped attacking combination in the final stages.

It was Taihape's best effort of the season, with youngsters Te Puawai Chambers (WA) and centre Shawnee Brausch adding bite to the strong experience of Nicola Cross at wing defence. Taihape led 19-15 at halftime and it was 28-all after three quarters.

Back to that first semifinal. Wanganui High School started like an express train and played brilliantly to lead 18-9 at the quarter. Marist coach Diane Watkin introduced osborne - just back from a cruise to New Caledonia - and things settled down, but it took a huge effort from the three-pronged defence to keep a lid on the brilliance of Shannon Goldsworthy, Sharnece Greenfield and their feeders.

But Jeffrey and Cloete stuck to them like leeches, and in the end the WHS pair started to miss goals because they were forced out wide or into hurrying.

"I still believed in us," Jeffrey said. "Despite being down by that much in the first quarter we still had three quarters to go and last week we were also down by 10 [against the same opposition] and came back and got ahead before losing."

Watkins: "It was too close for comfort, I thought we were in big trouble after the first quarter. But that defence was awesome - it was what we worked on all practice on thursday."

WHS coach Vanda Butters said: "We had our chances, we missed a lot of shots at goal - we found it really difficult to get into the circle. The girls are pretty upset but they played so well and so hard - but we have to be pleased with them."

In the bottom four semifinals, Collegiate beat Kaiwhaiki 61-50 and Ratana headed Utiku.