Lightning Talent vs Team Bath Talent

Lightning Talent 46 – 32 Team Bath Talent

Spirits were high as Lightning Talent walked onto the court on Saturday 2nd February due to pre match jokes, banter and upbeat music in the changing rooms.

At the start of the match scores remained level, defence were working hard to try to turn over the ball to put lightning in the lead. Unfortunately some slight errors were made meaning, lightning dropped behind by a few goals, this did not let it worry Lighting and was not going to let Bath pull away with their lead.

The start of the second quarter was similar to the previous play. Lightning dropped behind by two more goals but still continued to play their own game. Joy Davies and Laura Price both fed some beautifully placed balls into the shooting circle which allowed Lightning Talent to pull goals back. It was a very closely contested first half.

After a concise and uplifting team talk at half time our spirits were still high. Team changes brought Jayde Savage from the bench to WA and Laura Price from WA to C. This change was effective. The whole team persisted to fight tirelessly down the court to prevent bath scoring. Many three second calls were awarded against Bath and Lightning was able to convert Baths’ errors into goals. Nicola Caunt, Katie Bradshaw and Nia Campbell-Watson all marked their opponents brilliantly using a suffocatingly tight man-to-man mark enabling them to make spectacular interceptions, Jade Savage’s second stage defence was superbly effective, using her ever-so-deceivingly long arms to tip the ball in flight. Shooters Nina Warren and Rachel Sharrod stayed calm and collected in the circle making use of quick, sneaky passes to work themselves closer to the post.

Lightning Talent continued steadily to get more goals and stole the lead from Bath Talent. Lightning’s success fuelled the team to try even harder to extend their lead. The team started to play with a worry free aura about them and there were moments where the ball would float down the court with ease. Facial expressions changed from that of looks filled with anxiousness, which have been present in earlier games, to calm and relaxed smiley faces. Lightning’s team bench really helped the team to succeed with their cheering and positive encouragement to players on court, even getting a few “defence” chants going.

The game allowed Loughborough Lighting Talent to see the potential they have as a squad as some moments of play they were inspiring, all taking away the good play from this game and use it to lead them to more success in future games.