CITY West Falcons produced a dominant second half to storm to a 22-goal win (73-51) over Melbourne University Lightning in the Victorian Netball League (VNL) last night.

The Lightning are still searching for the form they produced last year, just shy of making the grand final. This season is a different story, with the championship side still pushing for a top four position.

The Falcons secured the win with what ended up being the biggest margin of the match. A tight first term was only separated by one goal with both sides able to consistently score on their own centre passes. It was from the second quarter onwards where the Falcons began to dominate all over the court.

It was a tough scoring night for the Lightning shooters with several dropping short even from under the post. The Falcons defenders were able to capitalise though, winning majority of the rebounds and transition fluently through court.

Zoe Davies spoiled the fun for the Lightning attackers tonight, taking some absolute blinders in the second and fourth quarters, assisting the Falcons to a 23-10 second quarter, and 22-15 fourth quarter.

The Lightning had a small glimmer of hope with Ramayer Gourley trying everything she could to win back some ball for her side. She was able to get several tips on passes going into shooting machine Jane Cook and even starting hunting out of the circle more. She took a literal screaming intercept in the third quarter, edging away from Cook and ultimately flew for a predictable cross court ball from the Falcons midcourters.

No matter how much Gourley was gaining possessions for the Lightning and trying to confuse the space for the Falcons attackers to place the ball into the wrong space for Cook, they were not able to convert it down the other end with Davies shutting down whoever she was on and winning ball left, right and centre.

The formidable combination between Cook and Maggie Lind was clear from the start, as Lind was dominating the long feeds from the transverse line into Cook who was slotting the goals nine out of 10 times.

A swap in positions for Lightning’s Mikaela Vaughan and Claudia Mawson allowed Vaughan to become more of a feeder role out at goal attack as she was having a tough night under the post. But the first quarter shooting yipes came back to haunt them with both having a hard time to find the middle of the ring.

Hawks Netball had a convincing win over Ariels, similarly as the North East Blaze beat the Wilson Storage Southern Saints. The closest game of the night was between the Peninsula Waves just falling short to the Geelong Cougars. Conversely, Boroondara Express had a field day over the Casey Demons.

VICTORIAN NETBALL LEAGUE ROUND 7 RESULTS

Peninsula Waves (47) defeated by Geelong Cougars (58)
Hawks Netball (65) defeated Ariels (39)
Boroondara Express (76) defeated Casey Demons (53)
Melbourne University Lightning (51) defeated by City West Falcons (73)
Wilson Storage Southern Saints (47) defeated by North East Blaze (72)