The collective faith of Sunshine Coast Lightning shone through in the dying minutes of extra time on the weekend, resulting in a 2 goal victory over Collingwood Magpies.
Lightning has a reputation of being able to stand up in pressure moments and with that knowledge Head Coach Kylee Byrne said she never doubted her team on Saturday.
“It was one of those games that we love to play, knowing that it could come down to the last minute and we had to be in the mix,” Byrne said.
“I had the self-belief (and the players had self-belief) that if it came down to the last 30 seconds we could still come away with it.”
While Collingwood led for the majority of minutes across the 4 quarters, Lightning refused to let the margin blow out and continued to challenge and tire their opponents.
Lightning won extra time, 5 goals 3 to cement the win and ultimately take home the 4 points.
Catapulting the team back to the top of the Suncorp Super Netball ladder, Lightning now look to their next opponent of Melbourne Vixens.
Despite sitting one win ahead of both GIANTS Netball and NSW Swifts more than half way through the season, the external noise continues to favour other teams in the SSN finals race. But the Lightning Coach doesn’t mind the underdog status.
“We’ve had 5 years of people writing us off so we are pretty comfortable with that,” she said.
“We don’t mind going under the radar if we keep winning games like that.
“There will be games in the coming weeks where we can put the foot down and push the lead out – hopefully that game is coming.”
