IN what was a tight affair for much of the game, the Peninsula Waves have bounced back from last week’s loss with a comfortable win over the Ariels, 58 to 45.

With Covid and other issues wreaking havoc for both sides, they were forced to replenish their stocks with players from both their Championship and Under 19 sides for this match.

It was a tussle in the opening 15 minutes, with both sides putting on a lot of defensive pressure. By the end of the quarter, the Ariels had recorded six deflections while the Waves had recorded five.

The Ariels had the opening centre pass and thus the first attempt at a goal through Stacey Gannon, but she missed. The Waves then made them pay down the other end when Georgia Hernan converted.

The Waves had the early ascendency and momentum before the Ariels started to pull things back a little bit. At quarter time the margin was four goals in favour of the Waves.

The Waves landed the first two goals of the second term, and after some bad misses they eventually converted again.

After a stellar first quarter, Olivia Morris’ shooting was a lot less accurate in the term, and it was hurting the Ariels’ ability to get back in the match scoreboard wise.

Up the other end though, Hernan was on fire in the circle, shooting it from all kinds of distances.

The Ariels brought the margin back a little bit in the dying minutes of the term, but as the teams went to the main break, the margin was still three in favour of the Waves.

The momentum the Ariels had started to enjoy continued in the opening minutes of the third term, and they managed to level the scores.

It was end to end stuff for much of the next 10 minutes, with the Waves unable to get more then a goal in front.

Then with six and a half minutes to go, the Ariels finally began to build a bit of a lead.

Someone who was very impressive for Peninsula all night was Gabrielle Dwyer at goal keeper. Her deflection and defensive work was strong, and she was able to do so without giving away too many penalties.

Things really started to fall apart in the back end of the term for the Waves. They would get the ball down to their attacking third, but then give away needless penalties such as offensive contacts, and all their hard work would go to waste.

At the same time, the Ariels were making the most of their opportunities up the other end, and as the teams turned for home the margin was two goals in their favour.

A very telling stat from the third term that indicated how much the momentum really did change was that the Waves gave away 14 penalties in the third term, but only had 20 for the entire first half.

The Ariels’ lead didn’t last long though. It only took a couple of minutes into the last term for the Waves to level things up again.

The Waves snuck a little bit of a lead, but with nine minutes to go, it was still really anyone’s game.

This was when the Waves started to get on top of the Ariels. They stepped it up and ultimately ran away with the match, winning by 13 goals.

In other results, the North East Blaze’s undefeated run came to a crashing end, comfortably beaten by the Geelong Cougars.

Hawks Netball joined Peninsula at the top of the ladder as the only undefeated sides after they beat Boroondara Express, while Melbourne Uni and Casey also picked up wins in Round 3.

VNL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 RESULTS:

Boroondara Express (41) lost to Hawks Netball (61)
Melbourne University Lightning (44) defeated Southern Saints (40)
City West Falcons (41) lost to Casey Demons (52)
Ariels (45) lost to Peninsula Waves (58)
North East Blaze (37) lost to Geelong Cougars (62)