Final Score: Eagles 34 v 24 Swan (W)
Eagles travelled to Southampton for their very long awaited second fixture against Swan.
The hosts warmly welcomed the 7 Eagles players who had very sadly lost their 8th squad member Anna that morning having lost (literally) her finger in the front door leaving home for the match.
Swan had 12 players in their squad which meant the Eagles girls would have to play smartly to manage their energy reserves to last 4 quarters on the court.
The first quarter started really positively with the determined attack of Maddi, Sara and Lucy working the ball into Eden who converted every shot.
Dané added to the Eagles first quarter tally with some tenacious defending resulting in a flurry of goals to get an early lead of 11-6.
The second quarter saw some issues with timing and decision making within the centre and attacking third due to some added pressure by the opposition. The Eagles defence of Marta, Maddi and Dané worked hard turning the ball over but the Eagles attack couldn’t capitalise meaning quite an even second quarter between both teams.
The half-time team talk identified the issues, and a centre court position change quickly ironed out the muddling in the attack. Marta and Maddi V continued to pile on the pressure in the defending circle with some tight team work, intercepting a significant number of balls and worked with Dané to bring the ball to the attack who took advantage of the turnovers resulting in a strong quarter ending 29-19.
The last quarter was very very tough for the girls. They were exhausted!
We needed some fresh legs on the court so Marta who had done an incredible job as GK came out to play GA to give some support to the attack.
Lucy went into GS and Eden into GK.
The girls dug deep and supported each other mentally as the mistakes and unforced errors crept in due to the fatigue. However, they held on to the lead they had built up and in fact won the last quarter by a goal.
The final result was 34-24. As their coach, I am incredibly proud of the resilience and team spirit displayed by every single player. Not only were there just 7 of them, 5 of them are still u12 playing a year up. A really great result and they should all be very proud.
Dané was awarded POM by the opposition for her dogged defending!!!!
Our love and thoughts are with Anna who was undergoing surgery whilst the match was going on. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her on the court again soon.
