Netball clashes expected to be close

A couple of the Premier One netball games scheduled for Colombo Road tomorrow could prove close affairs.

A battle of the colleges starts at 9am on Court 2 when St Matthew's front up to Makoura College.

St Matthew's will have taken great heart from their narrow 51-50 loss to Pioneer last weekend.

Their third-quarter play in particular had Pioneer on the back foot but coach Alison Penn will be seeking the same intensity of effort and concentration right from the first whistle.

Makoura College will be buoyed by their 41-36 win over Wairarapa College from last Saturday and will be keen to continue in their winning ways.

College teams have the habit of drawing the best out of each other so expect another close encounter.

Another game which could go either way is the Wairarapa College/Gladstone clash scheduled for Court 3 at 10am.

College will be without the services of injured centre Danielle McKay, a loss which disrupted their midcourt rhythm last Saturday and will deprive the competition of its only potential mother/daughter clash.

Wairarapa coach Kelly Sargent looks set to replace McKay with Whakaaria Rimene.

Gladstone have gone through the competition a little under the radar thus far, drawing against Makoura and suffering a one-goal loss to Carterton Lynx in earlier rounds.

However they will be coming off the back of a catch-up game played on Thursday night against Carterton Legends which will test their fitness and resolve.

Pioneer play Carterton Lynx on Court 1 at 9am. Pioneer squeaked in by a whisker last weekend and coach Pania Haruru will be in no mood to tolerate a repeat performance of what she described as "the worst game we've played all season".

In the other Premier game, Harcourts, coming off the back of a midweek catch-up victory over Carterton Lynx, should continue in their winning ways against Carterton Legends in a game scheduled for 1pm.