Curtin Hamersley Comets claimed redemption as they beat East Freo Sharks 52-45 in round 14 of the Gold Industry Group West Australian Netball League on Friday night.
The last time the teams faced each other was in round six where Sharks escaped with a nail biting one-goal win. Whilst this game was extremely close, Comets summoned all of their energy together to create a match-winning comeback.
Sharks started strong, a turnover by keeper, Jess Penny, denied Comets the chance to score off their centre pass as the ball found its way into the hands of shooter, Zoe Baxter, for Sharks to progress and find the scoreboard first.
Sharks found their niche as wing attack, Olivia Fowler, fed a sensational ball through to Abbey Hicks who found the net. Comets keeper, Liz Dronfield, reached new heights as she flew into the air to win rebounds and at the other end of the court young shooter, Aitaua Enari, was forced out of the circle by Sharks’ powerhouse defender Elena Damianopoulos.
Wing defence, Taylor Finch, worked hard off the ball to steal intercepts throughout the game. Sharks picked up the pace and their attempts at zoning worked as they gained a three-goal advantage.
Sharks trailed off in the final quarter as Comets went in for the kill. Comets created the biggest lead of the game courtesy of Burton who took time from play-making to display her talent under the ring.
Comets’ defending combination of Dronfield and Ella Taylor in GD made some incredible intercepts and disrupted the play for Sharks. Enari made the most of the final quarter despite having two defenders on her, she found a way to sneak in between to receive the feed from the top of the circle and score one of 31 goals from her 36 attempts.
An effortless combination in midcourt by Comets as Georgia Morgan and Lindal Rhode connected to guide their team home with the win by seven goals.
Curtin Hamerlsey Comets Coach, Alexis Stevens, said she was very happy with the performance.
“I was really happy with what we did. Sharks put up a really good fight, we sort of only ran away with it in the final quarter. I thought Sloan Burton really came into it and shot really well and we got 11 goals in the last quarter so that made the difference for us,” she said.
“We’ve been playing good defence the whole game, we were just making too many errors in the first half so we spoke about just making sure that we get the technical stuff right and eliminating some of those errors and we knew that if we could do that we’d start seeing the scoreboard go in our favour and that’s what happened.
“I thought everyone did their part. I was particularly impressed with Georgia Morgan, we moved her into Centre from WD I thought she brought a really nice steady pace and connected really well with Lindal Rhode.
“Sloan stood up and scored a lot of goals and we’ve got young Aitaua Enari, she’s only 15, so I thought it was really good to put a bit of experience around her and she did a really good job. Very happy across the board.”
