Minor Team vs Strangford – 2nd round of the Shield
The girls faced Strangford College at Lisburn Racquets club on Tuesday 30th January. From the outset, it looked as though the match was going to be quite even. Both attack and defence was constant across the court from both teams. Pressure was being applied in our circle and vice versa. Unfortunately, any time we managed to get the ball, we incurred an infringement. The most common being contact and obstruction. This caused much frustration and hindered the flow of play. Strangford took full advantage of this throughout the match. The first quarter was 1-0 to Strangford. They pulled ahead in the 2nd quarter, scoring a further 5 goals. In the third quarter, after a bit of a reshuffle in the ERGS team, we held them to only 2 goals scored. Then, in the final quarter, the penalties mounted and we lost some focus leading to a final score of 14-1 to Strangford.
Genuinely, once again for this team, the scoreline doesn’t do them justice and sadly they now bow out of the Shield. They are still young and new to the NI Netball scene. A lot to learn in the years to come and lots of potential within the team.
Junior Team vs Antrim Grammar – ¼ final of the League
The team hasn’t played a competitive match in some time so they were very keen to show that they hadn’t lost their competitive edge. From the beginning, the girls were in attack mode and it wasn’t long before the first goal was scored. However, despite numerous attempts, only one more goal was scored for ERGS and 1 for Antrim. 2-1 to ERGS at the first quarter. In the 2nd quarter, the girls really found their mojo. Lovely fluid play with excellent awareness from the Centre, Goal attack and Wing attack. By half time, it was 7-2 to ERGS. Going into the 3rd quarter, we changed the team slightly to allow for Fresh legs. There seemed to be something about scoring at that end of the court, despite the many attempts, the ball just wouldn’t go in often. 9-3 by the end. Finally, into the 4th quarter. Changes were made to allow everyone to have a chance on court. This was a risky decision on my part as the coach, but I wanted to give everyone some game time. What ensued was quite a nerve wracking quarter as Antrim started to creep back into the game. Thankfully however, our girls held them off to win 10-8 and secure themselves a place in the semi-final of the League. A super achievement for them.
