Coverage of the Vitality Netball Superleague continues on Saturday with three matches streamed back-to-back on the Sky Sports YouTube channel from 2pm
Saturday 10 April 2021 12:40, UK
Team Bath Netball and Loughborough Lightning both returned to winning ways on Friday night, at the start of a 10-match Vitality Netball Superleague weekend.
Anna Stembridge's outfit, who lost their first match of the season last weekend, triumphed over a tenacious Leeds Rhinos Netball outfit, while Lightning flexed their muscles against Sirens in the earlier contest.
Round 10 continues on Saturday, with three matches streamed on the Sky Sports YouTube channel. First, Strathclyde Sirens and Team Bath Netball will return to court to take on Surrey Storm and London Pulse respectively, before Celtic Dragons meet Loughborough Lightning.
On Sunday afternoon Round 11 commences, with Storm meeting the in-form Manchester Thunder, Dragons versus Wasps and Stars taking on Mavericks.
A bumper few days of netball will then conclude on Monday night, when Wasps face Mavericks and Rhinos duel with Thunder.
Team Bath Netball put a loss to Saracens Mavericks behind them with an impressive team performance against Leeds Rhinos Netball.
The title-contenders produced a strong second quarter to help them withstand a tenacious challenge from Dan Ryan's outfit and come away with a 52-46 result.
With Bath going into the match off the back of their first loss of the season, and Rhinos being able to re-introduce Donnell Wallam after her recovery from a fractured radius bone, the contest was poised to be a superb one.
From the get-go, Rhinos found Wallam beautifully in the circle and at the other end, the sharp connection between Sophie Drakeford-Lewis and Kim Borger was back.
Nothing separated the two after the first 12 minutes, and Anna Stembridge introduced Imogen Allison for the second quarter to try and stem the flow into Wallam.
Allison made an impact by securing two intercepts and two turnovers, and that helped Bath build in confidence. At one point, it looked as if they were going to accelerate away from Rhinos, but Rhinos reeled them back in and kept the difference to five.
Both head coaches made changes at the break; Summer Artman arrived at GK for Bath and Rhinos' Vicki Oyesola returned to partner Tuaine Keenan in their defensive end, after Keenan had been deployed from the bench a little earlier.
The opening stages of the second half were a real battle and the noise on court increased significantly, as each outfit tried to knock the other off course. Neither were able to and a 14-13 quarter kept the contest bubbling nicely.
As the final 12 minutes played out, Bath focused on converting their centre passes through to goal, safe in the knowledge that their opponents were the ones who had to take risks.
Undeterred by the task at hand, Rhinos came back to within three goals with five minutes to go, before Bath grabbed the momentum back following a footwork call, and held firm from there.
Loughborough Lightning returned to winning ways after a storming 'championship quarter' took their contest away from Strathclyde Sirens.
Sara Bayman's team out-scored Sirens 18-5 in the third quarter and that set them on their way to their 61-35 victory.
After suffering their second defeat of the season to Manchester Thunder last weekend, director of netball Bayman was keen that her players tidied up their work against a side that pushed them hard last time they met.
For Sirens, the weekend's schedule presented a challenge, with this encounter coming just 19 hours before a key clash with Surrey Storm on Saturday.
Initially, Lightning dominated as they scored the first five goals without reply and then moved 7-1 ahead. However, Sirens showed their tenacity to find their feet and be just four goals behind at the first pause.
Karen Atkinson used her bench well in the second quarter, Sirens' technical director deployed Niamh McCall at GA and her impact, together with Emma Barrie's accuracy and availability, allowed them to continue to grow into the game.
A 13-11 quarter in Sirens' favour made it a two-goal contest at the interval and after having had such a strong second quarter, Sirens kept their line-up the same for the third.
Meanwhile, Bayman made changes and the introduction of both Jaz Odeogberin and Suzie Liverseidge proved to be inspired choices.
Liverseidge provided a new dynamic in attack and the whole outfit worked hard in defence to create the turnover ball needed, to notch up 18 goals and erase Sirens' threat.
As the momentum slipped away from Sirens, Atkinson used the latter stages to find out about other players in her squad, and although they never gave up, they weren't able to make significant inroads in the lead Lightning had built.
Sky Sports is your home of netball. The Vitality Netball Superleague continues on Saturday with four matches streamed back-to-back on the Sky Sports YouTube channel from 2pm.
