On a very wet morning the girls gathered for this critical penultimate match of the season, knowing that a win today would set up a season decider against Royals in two weeks time. The whole squad was there, knowing that they wouldn’t all play but there as part of the team none the less.

Woodley got off to the better start. Fast fluid passes caught Eagles on the hop and 2 goals in under a minute put the girls on the back foot from the off.
The pace was frantic and as the girls woke up and started to make interceptions they found their form, scoring 4 goals without reply and the quarter ended 5-4 Eagles.

Neil was his usual gentle self in the break and the girls came out more awake and more focused for quarter 2. The frantic pace continued and so did the interceptions but Eagles could not capitalise on the turnovers fue to feeding in wild final balls into the D unable to be caught by our shooters. This meant that what could have been a 10 or 15 goal lead at half time was only 11 – 6 Eagles.

The girls were working really hard in a very competitive match. Eagles got off to the faster start in the third but there were signs that both sides were starting to tire and then Maddi who has covered every inch of the court (twice) had to go off with injured fingers. The quarter ended with Eagles taking a couple of late chances to be ahead, 16 – 9.

Final quarter and Woodley were still too close for comfort. The play was end to end with both teams making errors with poor passing and 4 minutes into the quarter only 1 goal had been scored.

Then the dam breaks and we have 4 goals in 90 seconds, two for each side. The end to end play continues, Woodley drew level for the quarter, Eagles respond to go ahead, Woodley come back again…Marta intercepts and it’s down the court to Helena, to Oona, to Charlotte…she’s a long way out but takes the shot and it’s in. The clock ticks down and Eagles win the match 22 – 13, the score not reflecting the closeness of the tie.

Charlotte Coates was awarded player of the match for Eagles after some great shooting and the Woodley Centre was recognised by Eagles.

Well done girls…all eyes turn now to the crunch match in two weeks time.

Thank you so much to Ian Thomas for the brilliant match report!!