On Wednesday 11th March the Year 9 Netball team headed off for their Annual Netball Blitz – kindly hosted this year at St Fanchea’s College.
This year, thankfully, there was no clash with a Hockey match, so we could field our full squad!
In total, 6 teams attended the Blitz – Enniskillen Royal, St Fanchea’s, St Kevin’s, Devenish, Mount Lourdes and in a return to the Blitz after many years of absence, St Mary’s, Irvinestown.
Our first game was against Devenish college. The team fielded was solid but due to Musical absences (Music exams), some players were playing out of position. Did this worry them? Not a bit. The team have played together since September in a variety of positions, making them a strong team wherever they played. From the whistle, ERGS took the upper hand with nice play from the centre – Annabel Morrison – to her Wing attack – Jessica Stronge, who then delivered a well-timed pass into the circle for Gemma Elliott to slot the first ball into the net. This pattern continued with slight variations when the passes went to Oliwia Juisak in Wing Defence and also to Eloise Renwick as the shooter in the circle. Our defence was called into action also when Devenish got the ball into their attacking circle. Ella Breen and Hannah Dundas working well together to distribute the ball back up the court. Final Score, Devenish 2 – ERGS 7.
Game 2 arrived with St Kevin’s the new opponent. With our Musician back from her exam, we were able to play everyone in their preferred positions. The dynamic changed as Leah Irwin stepped into Centre and began controlling the game through a shared understanding between she, Annabel and Gemma. The threesome have been playing together since Primary school and it was clear to see that their innate understanding of each other worked wonders on the score line. Final score, St Kevin’s 1 – ERGS 9.
Nerves began to build as the girls watched the other teams play. They could see quickly that the two next games would really test their metal. Game 3 – St Fanchea’s – the hosts. The team was changed a little to ensure that everyone on the squad got at least one or two games out of the 5. This was a much closer and quite scrappy game. The ball wasn’t often going to hand with a number of free passes just thrown away through nerves and good defensive marking by the opposition. Ela Colton found herself faced with a speedy WA so had to learn the hard way to keep tabs on her constantly. No mean feat. Shots on goal were missed by both teams as they fought to gain the upper hand. Finally the breakthrough came with some fast balls down the line between Leah and Annabel resulting in scores. With Hannah and Chloe Dougherty working strongly in defence, retaliatory goals were prevented. Final score St Fanchea’s 0 – ERGS 3.
A short lull in the proceedings allowed the girls to regain their breath and me to decide who would face Mount Lourdes. This would be a tight game as the Mount Lourdes girls have been playing in both the League and the Cup this year. They were match fit, match aware and very much match ready. Taking to the court at the appointed time, both teams started strongly and sized each other up to see where (if any) the weaknesses were. The first goal came to ERGS and spirits were boosted. Almost immediately, MLE evened it up. Back we came, Leah, Annabel and Gemma working their magic to get the ball into the circle. After a few attempts, Goal 2 arrived. Again, MLE responded very quickly. Hannah and Chloe fought well to get the ball out to Oliwia on the wing and so up to Gemma and Eloise in the circle. Back and forth they went, another goal apiece. Finally, with about 20 seconds to spare, in went Goal 4 and up went a huge sigh of relief form the girls on the court and a massive cheer form those on the bench. Final score Mount Lourdes 3 – ERGS 4.
With just one more game to go, the girls were exhausted through adrenaline and fast-paced games. A re-shuffle was required to ensure fresh legs were available. Jessica went back into centre, with Chloe as GS and Gemma as GA. Heather McCaffrey was into WA for her 2nd match and Lucy Carrothers into GD for her 2nd match. Poppy Ramsey made her first appearance as GK and Ela Colton returned to WD. The girls stepped up to play St Mary’s, Irvinestown ( whomthey had recently played in a friendly at ERGS the previous Wednesday). Having had this recent friendly match, there were no nerves amongst the girls in either team. It made for a more relaxed match, but no less competitive. The final score being St Mary’s 2 – ERGS 3.
So – a clean sweep against all the schools to ensure well-deserved gold medals. This meant that ERGS continued their winning run from last year’s Blitz. Congratulations to all the schools who took part.
1st – ERGS 2nd – MLE 3rd – SFE
