A confidence boosting win against West Coast Fever sets Sunshine Coast Lightning up for a solid run home in the Suncorp Super Netball 2021 season.
Breaking the Fever hoodoo was just the beginning of what Lightning will take out of the game and Steph Wood said the full performance demonstrates that her side can defeat any opponent on any given day.
“You couldn’t wipe the smile off our faces after Saturday night,” Wood said.
“We walked the walk after doing a lot of talk.
“There was so much passion out there, it was awesome – that performance shows what we can do.”
Lightning took learnings from the previous week when Fever began to put real scoreboard pressure on in the dying minutes.
Wood said the team refused to have a repeat performance of Round 9 and she was determined to hold a tight grip on the lead.
“[The focus was] just to score,” Wood said.
“Last week showed that sometimes we panic in the last 5 minutes when the scores start to get close.
“We looked at that [during the week] and I’m super proud of the girls.
“While there’s definitely still things to work on, we got the win in the end which is great.”
The Vice Captain was dominant with 3 Suncorp Super Shots, 16 goals (shooting at over 90%) and 25 feeds – 21 of which resulted in a goal attempt. Equally impressive was Wood’s zero turnovers for the match.
The strong performance alongside shooting partner Cara Koenen led both players to be named in the Round 10 Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Round.
Fever didn’t allow the 2 Lightning shooters to roam free however, attempting to disrupt their momentum with Stacey Francis-Bayman, Courtney Bruce, Sunday Aryang and Olivia Lewis all spending time in the defensive goal circle.
Wood joked that it was a compliment that Fever took Courtney Bruce off Cara ‘Baseline’ Koenen in her 50th match.
Koenen shared the milestone with Mahalia Cassidy in Saturday night’s game.
“It’s special for them, being teammates from when they were really young – to notch 50 games together is great,” Wood said.
After Suncorp Super Netball announced an amended Round 11 fixture, Lightning will now face GIANTS Netball at USC Stadium on Saturday 17 July 2021, from 3pm.
Lightning are calling on all of their Members and fans to turn up in full voice to help cheer the team on. Tickets are on sale now.
