Pumpettes and Real Steel will line up in this Saturday’s senior netball grand finals having both won their all important finals games on Friday night.
In A Grade, Pumpettes (who were last year’s premiers) beat ENDivas 38-26, while in B Grade, Real Steel earned themselves a grand final berth after they held off Brush Stop to win 51-27.
The A Grade game started off a close affair with ENDivas ahead two goals at the first break 10-8.
ENDivas however slumped badly in the second quarter.
They struggled up against Pumpettes’ stand-out defenders Rachel Gentles and Leah Le Lievre and, despite a big effort by ENDivas’ defender Demi Smith, Pumpettes had a good 21-13 lead at half time.
The two sides were evenly matched for the remainder of the game, however it was that second quarter which really hurt ENDivas and they couldn’t claw back the difference.
Hayley Walker was strong in attack for Pumpettes and Jo Carter pulled off a number of great intercepts to also help her Pumpettes’ team to the win.
Smith and Nikki Davey in the centre court, were ENDivas’ stand-outs in the game.
Pumpettes will be looking to defend their 2018 A Grade title when they take on JKM Dynamic Fitness in Saturday’s grand final.
Brush Stop, who only had six players available for last Friday night’s final, struggled up against Real Steel’s committed squad of 10 players.
Apart from Brush Stop’s 20 points starting handicap, the game was an even affair with Real Steel matching their higher rated opponents for the first three quarters in the shooting department, 7-8, 8-9, 8-all.
They finished strongly out-shooting a deflated Brush Stop side 8-2 in the final quarter to finish with a 51-27 win.
Both sides displayed great defence with Sharon Green (Real Steel) and Britt Martin (Brush Stop) invaluable for their teams.
Real Steel will take on Mystics in the B Grade grand final this Saturday and, if the match is anything like their major semi final game which Mystics only won by a goal, then the match is going to be one not to miss.
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