THERE was no real rhyme or reason to the results in the Victorian Netball League last night, with big margins and small margins both recorded.

In the top of the table clash, it was the Boroondara Express who prevailed over the Southern Saints in a match full of swinging momentums.

After both sides pinched a goal off the other’s opening centre pass, it was the Express who eventually jumped out to an early lead.

The defensive end for the Express – including the likes of Casey Adamson and Sarah Szczykulski – were particularly impressive, getting plenty of intercepts which their shooters – particularly Ruby Barkmeyer – were able to capitalise on up the other end.

The Express’ lead got out to as much as four goals during the opening quarter, but by the time the quarter ended it was only one after it had been level inside the final minute but the Express had a shot after the siren.

The Express maintained their buffer for the opening few minutes, but thanks to some solid team defensive pressure and some sharp shooting from Emily Andrew, the Saints drew level.

Tadiwanashe Kahonde was also impressive, with a strong vertical leap allowing her to get a lot of deflections.

The second quarter showed that this match was going to be quite the tussle, with no goals scored easily and no small lead a safe one.

The Express did finally break away in the final minutes of the quarter to lead by five at the main break.

Things were a bit more free flowing in the third term.

The deflections and intercepts were harder to get and although the Saints got within a couple of goals early in the term, that would be as close as they would get as the Express put their foot down and extend it back out to as much as a game high six goals.

By the time the teams turned for home though, that margin had grown even further out to eight goals.

The Express were quick to take their margin out even further to 10 goals early in the last, but the Saints did eventually manage to halve that margin. However momentum shifted that many times in the final quarter that they were unable to get on enough of a run to fully eliminate the deficit.

In other results, the Ariels got their first win of the season in over a year with a win over the Waves, while the City West Falcons had a dominant win over the North East Blaze. Geelong picked up a handy win over Casey as did the Hawks over the Lightning.

VICTORIAN NETBALL LEAGUE ROUND 4 RESULTS

North East Blaze (47) lost to City West Falcons (67)
Boroondara Express (51) defeated Southern Saints (45)
Peninsula Waves (48) lost to Ariels (64)
Geelong Cougars (52) defeated Casey Demons (40)
Hawks Netball (58) defeated Melbourne University Lightning (51)