Loughborough Lightning 66 - 48 Team Northumbria

Play Off Round 1

Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield

Loughborough Lightning powered into the Grand Final of the Co-operative Netball Superleague today with a 66 48 win over Team Northumbria. Northumbria were missing influential players Megan Hutton and Kelly Martin with ankle injuries and Lightning took full advantage. However the pace and power of the Lightning game in the first quarter would have been too much for any team. The entire Lightning team were on song from the first whistle. Lck and Reid were dominant in defence whilst the mid-court combination of Clarke, Murphy and Hampshire were electric moving the ball forwards. With Harten and James rotating well in the LL attacking circle Northumbria had no answers as Lightning’s raced to a 9-1 lead. Northumbria managed to gain a finger hold in the quarter and score good goals of their own but Lightning were flying. The quarter finished 20-8 to Lightning and a place in the final was beckoning.

The second quarter was a tougher affair as Northumbria gradually began to come to terms with the speed of the game. However Lightning were in no mood to ease up and kept powering down court with ball in hand to slowly extend their lead. Some spirited defensive work from Rochelle Quigley and Natalie Connor spared a few Northumbrian blushes but the lead had gone out to 35-17 at half time and there was no way back for the northern team.

Rosie Port rotated a few players at half-time taking off James (GA) and Hampshire (WA) and introducing O’Neill at C and Alex Wood at GS. Northumbria were ringing the changes as well and swapped positions on their shooting combination MacLeod and Stanley. The Northumbrian change unsettled the Lightning defence a little and the game became a more even contest. Stanley was finding good space in attack and Wood and Harten took a little while to gel as a combination for Lightning. Lightning were still in charge of the game and never looked like they might surrender their substantial lead but only managed to edge the quarter by one taking a 51-35 lead in to the final period.

In the final quarter Lightning knew they had made the final and mentally switched off. Team Northumbria on the other hand were playing for pride knowing that they now had to re-group for a second play-off match in two weeks time. Lightning became a little sloppy in their passing and gave away too much ball in mid-court and the attacking third. The defensive intensity also dropped slightly as Luck went to the bench and Tomlin stepped out at GD. Recovering from an ankle injury Tomlin was initially unlikely to be able to play at all but the impressive lead allowed Port to give her an NSL run out before the final. Overall the team performance wasn’t maintained but Northumbria still couldn’t dent Lightning’s massive lead. A final score line of 66-48 was an emphatic win to take Lightning through to their first Grand Final in three weeks time.

The key to this win was the fastpaced, flat game plan, which blew the Tynesiders away at the start of the match. This is the kind of game Lightning have been working on all year and they are producing the goods at the right time. Special performances from Kara Luck and Jo Harten capped the win. Kara Luck had a superb game at GD for Loughborough shutting down Northumbria’s attack while England star Jo Harten netted 41/46 in attack. Bring on the final !!!!