Netball: Upset win gives shooter shivers

By Sarah Nealon

Janine Topia had goosebumps as she shot the Cometz to an upset 15-goal win over the Auckland Diamonds on a night of shocks in the National Netball League.

In the biggest upset, the Otago Rebels suffered their first-ever defeat in the Coca-Cola Cup, losing to the erratic Southern Sting 53-59.

The Magic conjured up their first win in the league's history, beating the Western Flyers 62-54, while at Papatoetoe in a stop-start game the Cometz thrashed the Diamonds 53-38.

Cometz goal shoot Topia was clearly the crowd favourite on Thursday night, shooting 43 goals from 50 attempts.

"I was shaking. I had goosebumps, I couldn't believe it," said Topia. "But I was really focused when I came into the stadium."

With the Cometz leading comfortably at every quarter, the Diamonds had no chance of sparkling, despite a number of on-court changes by coach Tania Karauria.

In the second quarter, Diamonds shooter Leonie Leaver replaced Kiri Adams at goal shoot and Adams moved to goal attack. But pressure from Cometz defenders Bobbie McKay and Koren Pickard rattled the Diamonds.

In the second half, the Cometz dominated the midcourt with long, fast passes and superb intercepts and fakes from centre Temepara George.

Down south, the Rebels fumbled in front of their home crowd. Mistakes in the midcourt proved costly and were not helped by on-court position changes.

The Sting, however, had fire in their bellies. Double international Donna Loffhagen was on form at goal attack, while Silver Fern Bernice Mene was excellent at goal defence.

The Rebels trailed the Sting at every quarter. At halftime it was 29-35 and at three-quarter time 41-47.

"The Sting were desperate to win," said Rebels coach Georgina Salter. "They were totally firing. We didn't have that same desperate need and were really taken by surprise."

The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic overwhelmed the Western Flyers in every quarter at New Plymouth. The visitors led 33-22 at halftime, but by the end of the third spell that lead had narrowed to 46-40.

The Flyers were inconsistent in the midcourt and had problems feeding the ball to towering goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti.

At the other end of the court, the combination of Magic shooters Sarah Bonham and former Silver Fern Tania Nicolson worked well to outsmart the Flyers defenders.