Hertfordshire Mavericks

Mavericks Youth 41-40 Win Over Warriors

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mavericks Youth came head to head with West Midlands Warriors with their first home game fixture. With a tough game expected, the squad trained hard with the upcoming event arising and battled until the end keeping spectators at the edge of their seats.

The squad arrived at the Herts Sports Village at 4pm, ready and raring to go! After a motivation pre-match talk the squad was named and an intensive warm up began.  The starting squad consisted of GS Shaunagh Craig, GA Sophie Hankin, WA Eleanor Durcan, C Mikki Austin, WD Marina Mensah-Afoakwah, GD Megan Clark, GK Rianna Reid with further strength sitting on the bench.

Mavericks Youth started strong with the defenders proving their talent, continually forcing there opponents up the court with an outstanding defensive performance from Marina.  The attack proved successful in team spirit allowing our defenders to perform brilliantly due to the attacks second stage defence. This lead to a well deserved 12-8 lead in the first quarter.

The second quarter saw no changes made within the squad and players went on eager to perform once again. Sophie showed consistency in her shooting, which was supported by Shaunagh’s movement under tough defence from their opposition.  The entire team proved strong in both attack and defence throughout and pulled away winning the second quarter 14-9.

Changes at half time led to Claire Drakeford stepping on court at C after a 100% effort given from Mikki who unfortunately was unable to continue due to a persistent injury.  Along with this, Bobbi Simmonds stepped on at WA and Rov Allen at WD. However, despite a brilliant effort from all the girls, the third quarter took an unexpected turn, leaving spectators curious to what the final outcome would be.  West Midlands proved tough opposition and won the quarter 13-7.

As the 4^th quarter arose, a new seven started with Ellie and Marina returning to their original positions. After an intense play on court, Shaunagh declared a time out, leading to her and Sophie switching positions to attempt to pull the win out the bag and disrupt the opponent’s tactics. A nail biting continuous battle following, led to a draw between the teams being seen at 40-40 within the last minute.  However the entire squad proved to be a unit and every individual’s brutal performances allowed Mavericks to take the well deserved victory by one goal at 41-40. A fantastic team effort!

A special applaud goes to Marina for being awarded Player of the Match for her pure determination, grit and brilliant defensive play throughout and to Mikki who showed her desire to give her all despite a long term injury.  The shooting duo provided strong statistics with Shaunagh shooting 85% and Sophie 79%.

Well done to all the girls for taking the victory and providing a cliff hanging and exciting game for their bench and supporting fans!

Report by Jasmine Whitlock