Both teams knew the Saturday afternoon match at Canterbury Park was going to be tough, and that it was.
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The top-five showdown between Eaglehawk (5-1-2) and Kangaroo Flat (5-2-1) went down to the very end with both teams finishing eye-to-eye on 49 goals each.
At the end of the first quarter the visiting Roos had a two-goal lead over the Hawks, followed by a one-goal lead at half time and the scores were evenly matched at 37 apiece going into the final quarter.
"It was super tough and we knew it was going to be a hard game, last year we could barely touch them," Kangaroo Flat coach Jayden Cowling said.
"The full team performance from all the girls today shows that we are able match it with anyone in the top-three.
"Annie Spear (goal shooter) was under pressure all day but was able to keep hitting shots and Ingrid Hopkins (wing defence/goal defence) made some great intercepts which got us back in the game."
The Roos were up several times during the match and despite finishing with a draw, Cowling and the squad have been filled with confidence for the rest of the season's games.
"Obviously we wanted to win, we just threw away too many balls in the last quarter," he said.
"But this result shows that we can fight and get back into it. I'm very proud of the girls and we can definitely aim for a win next week against Sandhurst."
Eaglehawk goal attack Abbey Ryan said it was a challenging game.
"The league this year has some tough teams," Ryan said.
"Kangaroo Flat is a quality side and we knew we were going to have to fight hard and apply lots of defensive pressure.
"Our ball movement was pretty good. There were a few patches where we lost it but we were able to compose ourselves and get it back together."
Looking forward to next week, Ryan and her squad picked up several aspects of their game which they aimed to improve before the round ten match against Strathfieldsaye.
"We need to slow it down a bit and be a bit more steady with the ball," Ryan said.
"We threw away a couple passes as we were just a bit too fast, next week our focus is on defensive pressure and moving the ball down the court steadily."
In other A-grade BFNL netball games, top squad Sandhurst (7-1) had a tough match against Kyneton (2-5-1), but was able to pull away in the final quarter to secure a 13-goal victory.
At the end of the first quarter the Dragons led 16-3 over the Tigers.
At the half-time break there was only one goal between the teams with Kyneton in the lead 31-30 and going into the final quarter Strathfieldsaye had a four-goal lead 45-41.
However, during the final quarter the Dragons slipped away to win 62-49 over the Tigers.
During the battle of the Bulldogs, Gisborne (7-1) secured the upper-hand over hosts Golden Square (0-8) by 24 goals, with the final scores 28-52.
Strathfieldsaye Storm (2-6) was able to notch its second win of the season with a 13-goal win over the Maryborough Magpies (2-5-1), final scores 43-56.
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