Story by Alethia Tiang/Red Sports. Pictures by REDintern Thomas Tan.
The SIM WA makes a pass to her waiting GS. (Photo 1 © Thomas Tan/Red Sports)
National University of Singapore, Monday, January 4, 2009 – The green team from Republic Polytechnic (RP) won a hard-fought 49-32 victory over the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) in their opening game of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Netball Championship.
Despite trailing after the first quarter, RP outscored SIM in the other three to gain victory.
It was SIM who got the ball rolling, scoring the first goal of the game. With good defensive play, aggression and speed, SIM managed to establish a four-point lead at one point.
RP then began to pick up the pace to match the speed of SIM, hauling themselves level before SIM finished the quarter leading by one point.
Republic came back onto the court in the second quarter with better defensive plays. As both teams tried to counter each other in terms of speed and defensive play, the intensity of aggressive play rose as well, as umpires made many calls for obstruction and contact.
SIM efforts to increase their lead came up short against an RP team that defended strongly. RP also stepped up their game speed which caused the SIM defenders and finished the second quarter leading by two points.
RP blew open the game in the third quarter as they soon learnt how to read the SIM game plan. The RP girls were everywhere on the court and broke away to take a 36-22 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The final quarter saw SIM having better teamwork as the girls fought for their rebounds and made better interceptions to gain ball possession. However, their 10 goals in the final period was not enough to prevent RP winning 49-32.
Captain of the team from Republic Polytechnic, Lau Mei Shi, 19, believed her team played fantastically, despite facing strong opponents.
“The shooters, Jocelyn Ng (GA), Edelyn Chan (1st-2nd Quarter GS) and Tan Li Hui (3rd-4th Quarter GS) did extremely well. They managed to convert almost 100% of their shots and widened the score gap. The midfielders were able to pass the ball around, especially during the turnovers. The defenders, too, did their best, like outjumping the other team’s Goal Shooter (GS) and increase the possession turnover.”
RP will face Temasek Polytechnic on Wednesday, 6 January 2009 at 8:20pm while SIM will face defending champions NTU at 7pm the same day.
All the best, girls!
For more results or to update results, go to the SCHOOL FIXTURES & RESULTS page.
The SIM coach, Chow Chon Tee, shouts instructions to her team. (Photo 2 © Thomas Tan/Red Sports)
The heavily marked SIM WA manages to evade her defenders and catch her teammate’s pass. (Photo 3 © Thomas Tan/Red Sports)
N.B. If you know the names of the players featured, let us know in the comments section and we’ll update the captions. Thanks.
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