THERE was an overarching theme across most of the games in the VNL last night – tight results.
One of the results that was not though was the match between the Blaze and Waves, which saw the Blaze comfortably come away 18-goal winners.
Despite the eventual scoreline, things were tight early. Proceedings went pretty much goal for goal for a lot of the first quarter as the defensive turnovers started to accumulate and Brodie Smith, Georgia Bowkett, Lyshae Barry and April Bethune really shone.
It was not until the last third of the quarter that the Blaze were able to briefly properly get ahead, but it was not long before the Waves reeled them back in again.
The Waves’ speed on transition was impressive and they were able to put the Blaze under real pressure and cause the turn overs.
This allowed the Waves to take a small lead late in the term and ultimately took a two goal lead into the first break.
The second term saw the Blaze get the first two goals of the quarter to level things up again, before the Waves went on a run to build a lead back up.
It was not until the back end of the quarter that the Blaze really started to take charge, and as such established a seven goal lead by the time the teams took a break for half time.
The Blaze really started to take momentum in the third term. A 19-9 term in their favour saw the lead balloon out, and even though the final quarter was a one goal difference in the Blaze’s favour, it did little to affect the final scoreline.
In other results, City West Falcons were the other comfortable winners, defeating Geelong by 15 goals. Meanwhile the Express, Demons and Hawks did not have such easy nights, with a combined margin across their games of six goals.
VNL CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6 FIXTURE
North East Blaze (67) defeated Peninsula Waves (49)
Boroondara Express (56) defeated Western Warriors (55)
Bendigo Strikers (47) lost to Casey Demons (48)
Hawks Netball (60) defeated Southern Saints (56)
City West Falcons (62) defeated Geelong Cougars (47)
Bye – Melbourne Uni Lightning
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