Final Score: Eagles 69 – 55 Abbey N.C (W)

Eagles 1 travelled away this morning to Oxford to face off against Abbey. They are 3rd in the league table so we knew this was going to be a tightly contested match. 

Starting 7: GS – Kirsty Rusher, GA – Georgie Maxfield, WA – Kat Butler, C – Amber Frobisher, WD – Charlotte Burnage, GD – Charlotte Maxfield, GK – Katie Fisher

Eagles got off to a flying start in the first quarter and worked hard to secure a 4-goal lead by the end of the first 15 minutes. With some very slick first and second phase centre-passes the attackers were able to find their GS in plenty of space. However, after a solid few opening minutes from Eagles, Abbey seemed to wake up a bit, alongside a few too many unforced errors from Eagles, and started coming back at us.

Abbey had an excellent GS who caused our defence a lot of issues and once Abbey started to feed her more accurately, they started slotting the goals away. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 17 – 13 to Eagles.

2nd Quarter: GS – Kirsty, GA – Georgie, WA – Kat, C – Amber, WD – Charlotte B, GD – Charlotte M, GK – Katie

Going into the second quarter, Eagles continued to push on. Early on there were quite a few unforced errors in the attack and some slick play from Abbey meant they started coming back at us. However, a few words from the sideline saw the attack switch things up slightly with what they were doing, particularly in the circle, which meant that we started cutting out our unforced errors and capitalising on our turnovers. The second quarter ended Eagles 34 – Abbey 26

3rd quarter: GS – Kirsty, GA – Georgie, WA – Kat, C – Amber, WD – Charlotte M, GD – Hannah (C), GK – Katie

The third quarter saw a slight change to the defensive line-up for Eagles which really switched things up in defence and Abbey struggled to adapt quick enough to these changes. Eagles tightened up their defensive centre passes and started to turn the ball over quickly to stop Abbey from feeding their holding shooter so effectively.

With some strong turnovers from the defence, Eagles attack were able to capitalise on this with some excellent shooting from both Kirsty and Georgie and some great feeds from both Amber and Kat.

Eagles really managed to push on in this quarter, and despite the close scoreline, felt quite comfortable working the ball down the court. This allowed for some great court craft between the attack in and around the circle edge, drawing their defenders and opening up space under the post. The third quarter ended with Eagles 54 – Abbey 37, with Eagles improving their score by 20 goals. 

4th quarter: GS – Kirsty, GA – Georgie, WA – Kat, C – Amber, WD – Charlotte M, GD – Hannah (C), GK – Naomi Sterio

The last quarter saw the GK bib change with Naomi back from a few weeks of illness. Naomi, Hannah and Charlotte made a great impact around the and in the circle, turning ball over from the fast and slick Abbey attack. With Eagles dominant third quarter, we knew that all we had to do was maintain our lead and look after the ball. The maturity and confidence of all on the Eagles side saw them finish the game off with a 14-goal lead. 

Abbey’s player of the match was their GS who hardly missed a shot!

Eagle’s player of the match was their GA (Georgie).