After a rather desultory start to the season, the Under 14.1 girls have managed to put together three wins over the past five weeks.
Coming out of a promising display at the January Eltham Tournament, the girls hit a slump that was dispiriting and caused quite a bit of soul searching among the team.
On Friday, 15th May, a closely fought 1 point win over Ringwood injected some much needed confidence into the playing group. Along with this win came the knowledge that the ability and determination was still there to finish off a game strongly.
The following week, the girls travelled into MSAC to play Melbourne 2. This was a game that could have easily gone to either team but the Melbourne girls seemed to have the breaks in the final minutes of the second half. Our girls could not stem a goal run that was the result of a couple of quick turnovers and a change in the the lead on the scoreboard. Melbourne 2 ran out winners by 7 points.
Friday 29th May saw a home game at Waverley. The girls took on Cranbourne with a heartening display (for those both on and off the court)of strong defence and creative offence. The final winning score of 30 – 47 was an immense boost to morale.
The Friday that leads into the Queen’s Birthday long weekend is often tricky. This year the 14.1’s journeyed to Keilor for a 7.40pm game. Our greatest obstacle was getting the whole team there on time. An accident on the Westgate Freeway had reduced all roads leading into the city to a standstill. Ten minutes before the appointed game time only four players were at the stadium. Parent, John Nomikoudis assumed the role of ‘director of directions’, standing in the carpark and ushering players and their parents to the front of the stadium and then onto the court. Fortunately, the referees allowed extra time with player number 5 running from the car and onto the court as time was called to begin. Throughout the first half of the game players arrived with their traffic-shocked parents in tow. By half time all players had arrived and the game was again flowing in our favour.
The final score was 32 to 23 to Waverley.
Last week, Waverley played Dandenong 3 at Dandenong. This was an important game against the top team and Waverley went into it with 2 key players out of the line up. The girls, without their main ball-carrier played a fantastic first half to be 1 point down at the break. During the second half, the size, speed and revised game plan of Dandenong 3 relentlessly increased their lead. At the final siren, Dandenong had blown out its lead to finish 52 – 27. There were positive elements for the girls to take away with them from this game. One of which was that they are not far away from matching it with the top teams when they approach a game with a unified mindset. When the team is working together – and not just the individuals slugging away, then the calibre of the game steps up and it is great to watch.
Keep aiming high Under 14.1’s.
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