The Sunshine Coast Lightning were hard to shake over the weekend during the Round 12 clash against ladder leaders, the Melbourne Vixens.
Lightning needed a repeat of their stunning upset victory in round five, where they ended the Vixens’ unbeaten start to the season, in order to join the logjam of teams sitting on 20 competition points.
The home side was pushed all the way by a determined Lightning outfit, recovering from nine goals down to level the scores in the final quarter.
But unfortunately, the Vixens pulled through during a tense finish with late intercepts from their defence end, helping to secure the victory.
Lightning Head Coach, Kylee Byrne said there were plenty of positives to take away from the match.
“Again, the way this group fought to stay in the game and take it to the ladder leaders, particularly after the start we had, was so promising. We are constantly putting ourselves in situations to win against the top teams and it will now be that shift with this new group to win a few in crunch situations,” she said.
“Every time our new athletes like Annie Miller and Reilley Batcheldor step out on court, they are getting better and better and gaining invaluable experience at this level.
“I was particularly impressed with our defence end and with all our defenders having the confidence and belief to create and come away with crucial gains was a definite positive from this match. We will be working on reducing the numbers of errors this week and finishing off all our opportunities with a converted set.
“We aim to continue taking it to both teams we are about to come up against to finish the season but firstly we can’t wait to play our last match at home at USC this weekend.”
Sunshine Coast Lightning will host their final home game of the season this weekend against the Magpies with plenty to play for.
