Monday night’s local netball Grand Finals featured two matches which pitted youth against experience, and both had proven their merit by the end of the night.
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The evening began at 6.15pm with the B Graders, in a final which featured Trinity and Divalls Divas.
As the numbers one and two on the ladder, both teams were favourites to make it through to the final match of the season, and Trinity’s collective youth and agility against the Divas’ knowledge made for an interesting contest.
There was nothing to split the teams after the first quarter. Trinity led, but the Divas stayed close with the score at 6-5.
In the second quarter, Trinity began to take a firm lead, and their accurate shooting and darting intercepts took a toll on the Divas, which showed in the 18-9 half time score.
The Divas picked up their performance in the last half of the game, but it was too little, too late, as they were sunk by seven points, 31-24.
“Amazing, it was so fun,” Trinity wing attack Kaitlyn Mateta said following the match.
“We all contributed and we all played really well. It was such a good game.”
Trinity knew that they were in for a tough match, Mateta said, particularly after the semi-final in which they only beat the Divas by three points.
“We thought it was gonna be pretty close,” she said.
“Our goal was to try and do better, but I think our main goal was just to have fun and enjoy our last game as a team together.”
As the A Graders took to the court, the crowd began to voice their anticipation.
The second match featured Metro and Coffee Guru, and began quickly in favour of the latter.
It became quickly apparent that the height difference between the sides and Metro’s lack of experience were working against them, while Guru began accurately and defended effectively from the outset.
After conceding a 10-0 lead to Gurus in roughly seven minutes, Metro finally found their way onto the scoreboard, and limited the damage to 16-6 at the end of the first period.
The second quarter saw Metro begin to pull their defense together, and they continued to improve throughout the match.
Early in the fourth quarter, they managed to diminish the deficit to four points, however Guru then found their resolve and finished the match seven points ahead, 40-33.
“[I’m] relieved that we came back,” Guru wing defence Alana Turner said.
“We normally come out really slow, and it takes us some time to warm up, so I’m really glad that we came out firing.”
