Diamonds Retain Quad Series Title
The Australian Diamonds remain the Netball Quad Series champions after a close one-goal victory over the England Roses in London on Sunday night (AWST).
Finishing with the scoreboard reading 47 to 46, the game was a close encounter, similar to the last time the two sides met on Roses home turf in January of 2013.
On that occasion the Diamonds were defeated by two goals.
Considering match history, Diamonds captain Sharni Layton said that her team was prepared for the English side to come out strong.
“We knew tat they were going to come out fighting, we knew they were going to out firing. We definitely didn’t put out most consistent performance out there, but that was a credit to them putting us under a lot of pressure,” said Layton.
Right from the first whistle Australia’s expectations were met, finishing the opening quarter with their smallest opening quarter margin of the series, 13 to 9.
Both teams remaining unchanged going into the second quarter, England stepped up the intensity taking the lead five minutes in to the play.
This lead was short lived however with Australia scoring a quick three goals to regain the upper hand and head into half time three goals up.
The third quarter saw the Diamonds make a change in their shooting circle, bringing on Queensland Firebirds goal attack, Gretel Tippett.
Whilst this had an initial impact, surging Australia to a seven goal lead, three quarter time saw the Roses lead 36 to 34.
Heading in to the final quarter Diamonds Head Coach, Lisa Alexander brought Jo Weston into the goal defence position and Caitlyn Nevins into wing attack.
Throughout the final term momentum continued to swing from one side to the other, England finishing the last four minutes of the game outscoring Australia by four.
A game which looked close to going to extra time concluded with the Diamonds one goal up on their opposition.
Speaking at the conclusion of the match Sharni Layton said “we were playing our game and not being pushed into the game they wanted us to play. We knew it was going to be physical, we knew our bodies were going to be hit, but we were able to get off the body and play the ball around, and in defence we were able to keep that connect and force a few high balls to come out on the fly.”
Australia’s win over England saw them remain undefeated for the Series and resultantly they were awarded the NEtball Quad Series title.
The Diamonds have now returned to Australia where they will continue preparations with their respective clubs for the inaugural Suncorp Super Netball league, which is scheduled to commence on the 18th of February.