Opportunity beckons for Harcourts’ first win

Harcourts get their best opportunity to chalk up their first win in division one of the regional superleague netball competition when they host PIC 2 at the Genesis Recreation Centre in Masterton tomorrow.
Both Harcourts and PIC 2 have been on the end of decent beatings against the top-rated sides in their first three games since being promoted from division two. The two sides did clash at the very start of the superleague season with PIC 2 winning comfortably but Harcourts were still in the early throes of their preparation then and have improved markedly in the interim.
Harcourts coach Kelly Sargent believes her side are capable of reversing that result tomorrow and takes particular heart from the way they finished their match against Wellington East last weekend.
The end result then showed a big win to Wellington East but Harcourts scored only three goals less than them in the third quarter and actually "won" the fourth and final quarter by one goal.
Sargent said the onus would be on the Harcourts players to take responsibility for the requirements necessitated by their particular roles.
"Maybe we've been looking too much at the overall team effort rather than focusing mainly on our own jobs," she said. "If everybody does their job well then obviously the team benefits as a whole, doesn't it?"
Harcourts will again be without the injured Emma Foote and at the time these notes were penned Sargent was still unsure whether her own fitness hassles would allow her to play either.
And if they do the probability is she will be in the defence with Waimarama Phillips combining with Geraldine Carroll at the shooting end.
Likely to be part of the starting line-up too will be youngster Paige Drummond, a relative newcomer to the side who played well enough last weekend to be part of the action again.
PIC 2, for their part, will have at least one Pulse player in their team, and possibly two, but, even so, Sargent says a win is possible.
"It should be close and exciting and hopefully we come up trumps," she said.