Netball: Stars spurred on by tragedy and adversity upset Tactix
Stars Charlie Bell during the Stars v Tactix ANZ Premiership match.
Photo:
Blake Armstrong/Photosport
The Stars upset the Tactix 57-52 in Auckland last night after an extremely challenging week for the franchise.
Three players were
injured when the Stars lost their opening game of the season to the Mystics last weekend.
Scans later confirmed an ACL injury to midcourter Greer Sinclair, which meant her season was over before it barely began.
Defender Kate Burley is nursing a foot injury so was not available yesterday, and will be assessed week to week.
Assistant coach Leana de Bruin was on the Stars coaching bench, just a day after receiving the tragic news that her brother in South Africa had died suddenly.
De Bruin played 34 tests for South Africa before moving to New Zealand in 2000, where she went on to play 104 tests for the Silver Ferns.
Stars captain Maia Wilson said they had so much to play for.
"Leana got the news that her brother passed away Saturday morning back in South Africa so she had pretty much had 24 hours to process that. I think she's hopping on a plane in the next 24-48 hours to head to South Africa for two weeks to be with her family. So another reason to be able to play hard," Wilson said.
The Stars captain was proud of her side's performance.
"Really really happy, we've faced so much adversity over the last week, as well as having some milestones in terms of debutants last week that got overshadowed by all the other stuff going on so really proud of the girls to be able to turn things around, stay really connected and come out with a win."
The game also marked the 100th ANZ Premiership match for Mila Reuelu-Buchanan, who played 45 minutes last night, as she returns from an ACL injury.
"She's a massive part of our team. I think she's the anchor in terms of drive, determination, vibrancy and bringing a lot of life, her work ethic is second to none and that shows how well she's been able to come back from her ACL so two big weeks for her and awesome to be able to come out with a win on her 100th game."
Mila Reuelu-Buchanan
Photo:
Photosport
Former Silver Fern Kayla Johnson, who has been brought in as injury cover for the Stars, played 16 minutes at wing defence.
"She comes back in quite seamlessly and really cool to have her wealth of knowledge and experience to be able to put her out in a game like this when Mila wasn't fully back to a 60 minute game just gave our team some backbone to help continue our momentum.
"She's been playing social indoor netball and she's been playing some club netball …she's definitely still got the lungs for it."
Australian import Charlie Bell shot 40 goals at 90 percent accuracy and pushed the Stars out to a 15-14 lead at the first break, thanks to back-to-back two point shots.
The Tactix looked out of sorts and couldn't shake the defensive pressure the Stars brought.
In the absence of Burley, Lili Tokaduadua played her first full game at goal defence, and pulled off some stunning intercepts.
In the third quarter Tactix captain Erikana Pedersen had to go off with an ankle injury.
At the end of three quarters the Stars led 44-38 and pressure started building on the Tactix to convert some two-pointers.
And they did just that, with Te Paea Selby-Rickit and Martina Salmon combining to sink three successive super shots and suddenly they trailed by just two with two minutes left to play.
But the Stars regrouped and scored singles, while more attempts at the super shot just didn't land for the Tactix.
Tactix defender Karin Burger said they knew coming into the game that the Stars would be playing with a lot of heart.
"I think you could see that on court tonight, they were probably just a little bit more hungry for ball. We at times got close but we just let ourselves down in the last few minutes especially. We needed to win a bit more ball in defence, and hold on to possession, we committed a few silly turnovers," Burger said.
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