Loughborough Lightning Development v Leeds Met Carnegie Development 24th March 2007

This was always destined to be a tense, hard fought match for the Lightning Development squad, having gone to Leeds for the 1st games of the season and lost by 2 the Lightning girls were in no mood for loosing this fixture especially on home ground and the crowd weren’t disappointed.

The game started at tremendous pace with Lightning not getting of to the best start Leeds met pull away with a 5 - 1 lead inside the first 5 minutes of the match. The Leeds Met GS found her range early on in the 1st quarter and was very in accurate shooting, her position made it difficult for our defence to intercept the ball. The 1st quarter saw Leeds Met ahead 15 - 11.

Lightning came out in the 2nd quarter a determined team, with a new defencive combination of Sara Parkinson (GK) and Kay Sparks (GD) in the Circle and turned over Leeds Mets first 2 centre passes this enable Lightning Development to freely control the ball down court and feed the ball in to Rachel Sharrod (GS) who was holding strong in the shooting circle. This bought Lightning back into the game. Lightning Development finished the 2nd Quarter 23 - 23.

At the start of the 3rd Quarter Lightning Changed Sophie Holdstock from C to WA and Rachel Whitmore from WA to C, this seemed to give Lightning Development more composure and options coming down the court, However Lightning Development allowed a number of unforced errors to creep into their game at the start of the third period, but Leeds Met was unable to capitalise on the mistakes. Lightning Developments GS Rachel Sharrod found her range,and her accurate shooting steadied Lightning. Leeds Mets attack, which had been patient and controlled, was put under extreme pressure by McQuade (WD) Whitmore (C) Sparkes (GD) and Parkinson (GK), and errors started to creep in. Lightning took the quarter 9 - 7 (32 - 30), and appeared to have the upper hand.

In the final Quarter Lightning range the Changes Joy Davies to WA and Jess Hartland to WD. The 4th quarter was really close, the first four goals went with center passes, Leeds then pulled away by 2 goals, Rachel Sharrod made a cruical interception and then scored under the post which changed the whole game, Lightning Development then scored 7 goals without reply from Leeds Met. The Quarter was won by Lightning 14 - 8 (46 - 38)

The whole squad showed great determination and skills. Well done.

Player of the Match: Rachel Whitmore

Squad: Rachel Whitmore Capt, Hannah Perrett Vice - Capt, Nina Warren, Rachel Sharrod, Sophie Holdstock, Joy Davies, Kaylea McQuade, Nia Campbell - Watson, Jess Hartland, Sara Parkinson, Becky Gentle, Kay Sparkes,

Quarter Scores (Lightning Dev score first)

1st Quarter - 11 - 15

2nd Quarter - 12 - 8 (23 - 23)

3rd Quarter - 9 - 7 (32 - 30)

4th Quarter - 14 - 8 (46 - 38)

Shooting Stats:

Rachel Sharrod - 29/38 76%

Nina Warren - 17/23 74%

Hannah Perrett