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This week saw Hertfordshire Mavericks travel the short distance to Loughborough following their marathons to Hull and Cardiff and register an impressive 65-34 victory.
Early Lightning pressure saw them score the first goal but Mavericks with constant pressure and control play against an eager home team managed to stamp their intentions early on and not to let too many unforced errors slip through. Mavericks began to control the game with the defensive partnership of Lyndsay Keable and Josie Huckle allowing little movement for the Lightning attack. Mavericks continued to dominate with Sasha Corbin, Rose Morgan-Smith and Camilla Buchanan feeding the shooting duo of Vicklyn Joseph and Alice Ewer with accurate regularity, allowing the score line to reach 8-2 with just 6 minutes gone. An injury time out called by Loughborough, allowed them to re-group and for the remainder of the quarter the teams traded goals and the quarter ended 16-8.
There were no changes to either team going into the second quarter. Mavericks were back on the attack following a great interception by Josie Huckle which led to an early turn over goal. Continued mid court dominance by Mavericks saw them take a 23-11 lead half way through the quarter allowing them to extend their lead to 31-16 as the half time whistle sounded.
Changes for Mavericks at half time saw Mikki Austin debut at C, Naida Hutchinson at goal defence and Lyndsay Keable from GD to GK.  Early errors littered the start of this quarter but Mavericks were first to settle as they scored three unanswered goals. With the constant high temp mid court now responding following the changes the goals flowed for Mavericks and any Lightning attack was met with a wall of resistance and by the end of the third quarter they had extended their lead to 49-20.
The fourth quarter saw coach Karen Atkinson make one final change replacing Vicklyn Joseph with Steffi Burt and Steffi was soon capitalising on the excellent feeds into the circle. With the score standing at 57-27 and with the game well won there was still not drop in the intensity of play from both sides as the fans saw them trade goals right up to the final whistle.
With this superb 65-34 victory, coach Karen Atkinson, now hopes her team can build on this performance for their crucial mid table clash against Team Bath, which will aired live on SKY TV next Thursday evening 23 February.
Shooting Stats: Vicklyn Joseph 35/42 – 83%; Alice Ewer 17/25 – 68%; Steffi Burt 13/15 – 87%
Overall Team 65/82 – 79%
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