IN this week’s match of the round in the VNL Championship Division, it was the Boroondara Express who were more consistent across the four quarters and earned a good win over the Wilson Storage Southern Saints.

It did not even take five minutes for the Express to build a nice buffer, racing out to a three-goal lead early. Things just build from there for the Express, as they looked like a well oiled machine as compared to the lesser experienced Saints.  

The Saints got more creative with their passes as the term went on and they managed to bridge the gap slightly, but at quarter time it was still the Express that led by three goals. Despite being behind, the Saints did shoot at 100 per cent in the opening quarter.

For the vast majority of the second term, it was a much more even term as compared to the first. It was goal for goal for much of the quarter with the margin hovering around three to four goals.

Then in the last few minutes of the term, the Express really got going again and the margin ballooned back out. At half time the margin had jumped out to 10 in favour of the Express.

The Saints had a much better start to the second half and reduced the gap back down to six goals. Things evened up more in the middle part of the quarter but then the Express reasserted dominance and started to regrow their lead.

As the teams turned for home, the margin was 13 in favour of the Express. The Saints had the much better start to the term, but it was not too long before the Express steadied and stopped the Saints’ flow.

They continued to fight though and did manage to bring things back to within eight goals, but unfortunately for the Saints though they just ran out of the time and the Express were victorious by nine goals.

For the Express, shooters Ruby Barkmeyer and Isabelle Hodgson were a strong and effective partnership in goals, while Casey Adamson in centre was a tough competitor all game, even crashing through a few packets.

Meanwhile for the Saints, shooter Emily Andrew was impressive under the ring, while up the other end Ashlee Barnett was another standout player.

In some of the other results from around the league, the Geelong Cougars and Hawks Netball both had good solid wins against the Casey Demons and Ariels respectively.

VNL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7 RESULTS:

City West Falcons (56) defeted Melbourne University Lightning (52)
North East Blaze (75) defeated Peninsula Waves (49)
Boroondara Express (62) defeated Wilson Storage Southern Saints (53)
Geelong Cougars (63) defeated Casey Demons (51)
Ariels (47) lost to Hawks Netball (58)