LAST night’s results in the Victorian Netball League were either one of two options – either an absolute thrashing or a tight nail-biter.

The tightest of the nail-biters was between the Geelong Cougars and Melbourne Uni Lightning, with the Cougars prevailing by a single goal in a match full of momentum swings.

Geelong raced out to a five-goal to none lead before Melbourne Uni were even able to put one on the board. The Lightning did manage to half Geelong’s lead before the Cougars regained momentum and extended their lead back out again.

Melbourne Uni then got the lead back down to one, before equalising with about three minutes to go. Thanks to the benefit of some handy intercepts, Geelong then pulled away again in the final few minutes of the term to see them take a five goal lead into the first change.

A frantic opening minute of the second quarter saw both sides get several tips and deflections in. It took almost two minutes for either side to get the first goal of the quarter on the board, which in the end was Melbourne Uni which was a relief for them because it has been their centre pass.

After Geelong got the lead out to a game high six goals, Melbourne Uni then work its way back into the game and got the margin back down to three, and then even as low as one before the Cougars then countered.  A few silly errors in attack were costing the Lightning though as Geelong regained their buffer, but crucially for the Lightning it was not more than a few goals.

The margin ultimately sat at three in favour of the Cougars at the main break, but with the number of times momentum had switched already in the match it really was still anyone’s game.

Geelong had a great start to the second half as they scored the first two goals of the quarter to extend the lead back out to five. But as they had done all night, the Lightning never went away and got the margin to back within three.

The margin continued to fluctuate throughout the quarter, but ultimately the margin sat at three in favour of the Cougars. Some bad passing cost the Lightning early in the last term as Geelong reinstated their five goal lead from earlier in the evening.

However the Lightning were not just going to give up, and got the margin back to within two halfway through the final term.   Geelong them stemmed the tide and got the margin back out to four, before the Lightning had a good final run to score the last two goals of the match and get to within one.

Unfortunately for the Lightning though they fell agonisingly short, just running out of time to completely catch up to the Cougars.

Geelong welcomed the return of Emily Kingston (née Post), who was back in the line up mere months after the birth of her twins, and was a dominant force in midcourt.

Meanwhile their defenders Brooke Allan and Victoria Honner were on song, taking advantage of a number of opportunities to halt the Lightning advances and turn them into scoring opportunities for their side.

Meanwhile for the Lightning Mikaela Vaughan was unusually inaccurate, but their defenders including the likes of Maggie Caris and Shae Brown, really kept the Lightning in the game.

In other results, in the only other tight result of the round the Southern Saints went two and zero after narrowly overcoming Casey.

Meanwhile it was a bad night for the Ariels who were comfortably beaten by the Express, while North East Blaze also had a comfortable win over the Hawks and City West demolished the Waves.

VICTORIAN NETBALL LEAGUE ROUND 2 RESULTS

Geelong Cougars (42) defeated Melbourne Uni (41)

Ariels (34) lost to Boroondara Express (81)

North East Blaze (61) defeated Hawks Netball (44)

City West Falcons (86) defeated Peninsula Waves (44)

Casey Demons (54) lost to Southern Saints (58)