NORTH Central’s 17-and-under netball squad is the best in Victoria.
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After two days of hot competition at the Golden City courts in Bendigo, the Carol Cathcart-coached team defeated Western by three goals in Sunday’s state championships grand final.
The North Central girls had gone into Sunday’s second day in danger of missing the finals, but they found their best form on day two, winning their remaining seven pool matches and semi-final in fine style.
The grand final clash with Western was tight early, but North Central’s team defence and the superb shooting of goal attack Abbey Ryan proved to be the difference in the end.
“We had a bit of a slump on Saturday when we lost two games in a row, but the girls did a great job to get the job done,’’ Cathcart said.
“We played all the top teams on the Saturday, so I was confident we would win our games on Sunday and that allowed us to rest some players and keep some freshness in the legs for the finals.”
Cathcart said her side daved their best netball for the finals.
“I felt we were the best team here, but we struggled to put together two good halves of netball,’’ Cathcart said.
“I thought in the final we did that. All the girls did their job. We built up our defensive pressure from attack all the way down and we wore Western down.”
North Central 17-and-under squad: Julia Twigg, Annie Spear, Abbey Ryan, Meg Patterson, Millie Wicks, Meg Williams, Georgia Miller, Eve Gregor, Elley Lawton, Ava Lowndes. Absent: Imogen Sexton (injured).
Meanwhile, North Central’s open squad qualified for the semi-finals, but lost to Jika.
Jika lost the grand final to Two Bays by one goal.
The 15-and-under squad missed out on the semi-finals by just three per cent.
The home side was equal on points with second, third and fourth place, but had to settle for fifth on percentage.
Golden City’s all-abilities squad did themselves proud by finishing runner-up to Barwon.
Golden City tested Barwon in the final before going down by two goals.