By Sarah Nealon
Moana Clark has her sights set high.
At 23, the single mum not only wants to become a policewoman, she also wants to wear the Silver Fern some day.
But the Auckland Diamonds defender, one of the rising stars of the national netball league, first has to concentrate on tomorrow's semifinal of the Coca-Cola Cup, when her team meets the formidable Otago Rebels in Dunedin.
The southerners have lost only one game this season, while the Auckland side just managed to squeeze into the semis.
Living in Auckland is new for Clark. Born in Australia, the full-time mother spent her first 18 years in New South Wales before moving to her father's home town of Whangarei.
Her family were already well-known Kiwis. Her paternal grandfather was prominent rugby referee Pat Murphy, who blew the whistle in 13 test matches between 1959 and 1969. On the other side of the family, her grandmother was crowned Mrs Northland in the early 1960s.
In Whangarei, Clark made the Northland netball side for three years between 1995 and 1998. A knee injury in 1996, combined with a pregnancy, kept her off the courts for nearly a year.
Just weeks after her daughter was born Clark was back playing - "But I don't eat, sleep and breathe netball."
A versatile sportswoman, Clark took lifesaving and basketball to representative level while in Australia, and played softball and touch rugby in Whangarei.
When she was selected to play for the Diamonds in January, she packed up her now two-year-old daughter, Mariea, and moved south to Henderson - and made lots of friends, she says.
Clark, who flew to Dunedin last night, says the Diamonds have a good chance of beating the Rebels tomorrow.
"I think we've peaked at just the right time. We'll be okay as long as we keep playing the way we did in the last couple of games and don't try to do anything spectacular."
Netball: Defender's goals set sky-high
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