Harcourts to keep foot firmly on the pedal

Harcourts will be keeping their foot on the pedal when they play Kapiti in a regional superleague netball match at the Genesis Recreation Centre, Masterton, on Saturday.
With two wins from their three superleague games to date Harcourts will start hot favourites against a Kapiti side yet to break their "duck" but coach Kelly Sargent is determined to have them sustaining a maximum effort over the full 60 minutes.
Reason being that goal differential could possibly play a big part in deciding where they finish on the competition table further down the track and so a big win over Kapiti could be a huge help in that respect.
That doesn't mean, however, that Sargent won't take the opportunity to make both personnel and positional changes as the game progresses, as she did when Harcourts hammered Taita 67-27 last weekend.
"Obviously making changes slow things up a little while combinations get settled but, generally, the replacements slotted in well and things pretty much continued along the way they were," she said. "It was a good chance to test the depth in the squad and what we got was very encouraging."
Particularly pleasing for Sargent was the accuracy of talented Kuranui College pupil Waimarama Phillips in the shooting department. She was paired there at different times with Sargent herself and the experienced Geraldine Carroll and came through with flying colours.
It was a big day for the Phillips family as Waimarama's sister Te Ata, who plays in defence, was part of the starting line-up and also came up with a strong performance. It will be interesting to see whether she starts again on Saturday or whether Amy Lucas is given the chance to display her wares from the word go.
Comfortable as the win over Taita was though Sargent wasn't entirely satisfied with the performance and is keen to see greater fluency in the movement of the ball on Saturday.
"There were times when the ball carrier had trouble picking up her supports because they weren't moving quickly enough into space and that's something we need to put right this weekend," she said.
Meanwhile, matches in Netball Wairarapa's premier one competition continue at the Genesis Recreation Centre tonight with the two main contenders for the title, Gladstone All Blacks and Celtic, in action. Gladstone All Blacks won't get everything their own way against St Matthew's Collegiate but should have the edge and Celtic will be too classy for Fagan Motors Hot Shots.
Premier one action will also take centre stage at the Rec Centre on Friday night and a couple of hard-fought battles are likely too. Kuranui College will start favourites over Wairarapa College and Pioneer Blue likewise over Carterton Sports Arena but there are no guarantees.