Sports School and Canberra through to North Zone B Division netball final

By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports

Republic Polytechnic, Friday, March 5, 2010 – Defending zonal champions Singapore Sports School and dark-horses Canberra Secondary will challenge for the North Zone B Division Netball Championship title after beating their respective semi-final opponents convincingly.

Sports School had it easy as they led their semi-final from start to finish, beating Anderson 38-14. In contrast, Canberra had to toil for their spot in the final, only pulling away in the second half to edge North Vista 36-23.

North Vista had come into the semi-final as the undefeated winners of their second round group while Canberra finished as runner-up to Sports School in Group Y.

In the early goings, both North Vista and Canberra were neck-and-neck, with the scores-line being evidence of that. Both schools were still tied after two quarters and it took a harsh scolding by the coaching staff at half-time for Canberra to start pulling away.

By the end of the third quarter, they established an 11-point lead at 27-16 before they easily closed out the match in the fourth quarter, 36-23.

"It was a tough game," said Pamela Neo, Canberra's coach after the match. "Partly, it was due to the lack of preparation, in terms of the mental and physical preparation. At the start of the match, the girls panicked and were very sloppy."

"After some scolding which was a wake-up call, everybody started to play well. That's when they went all out – they started to run, the sloppiness started to go away and everyone was fired up. As a result, we started to pull away."

When asked if they expected to win against the undefeated North Vista, she said: "It was a 50-50 game so all we did was try our best and trust the girls, and they didn't disappoint."

She also commented on facing Sport School: "It is a learning journey. Lose or win: it doesn't matter. We have nothing to lose. If we lose, nobody will blame us, and if we win, then we are at the top. So nothing to lose and we will go all out."

Sport School had a much easier match against Anderson as they limited their opponents to just a single goal in the first and third quarter to beat them 38-14. Sports School stormed to an early 10-1 lead in the first quarter and never trailed from there. Although barely winning the second period 7-6, Sports School still managed easily seal the victory in the final two quarters.

"It was an exciting match," analyzed Natalie Koh, Sports School's captain. "I thought the team persevered on as there were ups and downs throughout the match, but the team managed to it stop it halfway through and just take control of the game. We managed to focus throughout of the 10 minutes of each of the quarters and had our goal in mind throughout."

"The defense put on us was quite strong as there was a point when the GK kept intercepting long balls, but after a few times, we played it short."

The final will be a repeat of the second round clash between the two schools where Sports School easily swept Canberra aside 49-12.

Natalie said: "We will learn from the previous game and put a tighter defense on them and a different style of defense."

Sports School and Canberra will play each other in the final on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at Yishun Sports Hall at 1530hrs.