Story by Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports. Photos by REDintern Low Hui Yu/Red Sports
The SSP GA puts pressure on the RGS GD’s pass. (Photo 1 © Low Hui Yu/Red Sports)
CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh), Friday, April 15, 2011 — Defending champions Singapore Sports School (SSP) put up an impressive performance to blow away Raffles Girls’ School 41-20 to qualify for the National B Division Netball Championship final.
“They (SSP) were possessed! I have never seen them play so well before!” said Raffles’ coach, Chng Li Li.
The first quarter started slowly with both teams committing several unforced errors and having a poor shooting accuracy. SSP entered the second quarter with a 5-3 lead.
For the second quarter, Liz Chew took over from Zakirah in the Goal Attack position and it paid dividends immediately. Accurate shooting by Liz Chew extended the SSP lead to seven points at 11-4.
Raffles finally found their feet and went on a 3-1 run but it did not take SSP long to shut them down completely to score six consecutive goals and wrap up the second quarter leading 19-8.
In the third quarter, SSP seemed to have an adrenaline rush. Phenomenal defence coupled with slick passes saw SSP dominate the court, outscoring RGS 12-6 to lead 31-14.
In the final quarter, SSP made several changes to their lineup and Raffles put together a better attack but the deficit was too large and SSP eventually wrapped up the game 41-20.
“Everything is right for Sports School today. It was just perfect for them. My players put in 110 per cent of their efforts but we lost out in term of size,” said Chng.
“Today was a good day. Anything that could go right, went right. The girls had excellent play. Yesterday we did not train, instead we had Noraida (one of the SSP coaches) to prepare them mentally for today’s game,” said Singapore Sports School coach Robin Manihera.
Analysing the final, Robin said, “We have come a long way. We are probably peaking at the right time. However, whether we can perform this well again (in the final), I don’t know.”
Singapore Sports School will meet Greenview Secondary in the final on Tuesday, April 19th, 3.40pm at Toa Payoh Sports Hall.
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