Netball: Steel pip Pulse at Sydney tournament

The Southern Steel held on to beat the Central Pulse 35-31 at a trans-Tasman netball league pre-season tournament in Sydney yesterday evening.

The Steel dominated initially to lead by 21-15 at halftime but the Wellington-based Pulse struck back with an impressive defensive effort to limit the Southerners to just four goals in the third quarter.

With a narrow 25-22 lead heading into the final spell, a strong performance by shooters Julianna Naoupu and captain Megan Dehn enabled the Steel to keep their nose in front.

Both teams made a raft of changes throughout the game to test various combinations.

In other all-Australian games today, the Queensland Firebirds beat the Adelaide Thunderbirds 35-27 and the West Coast Fever came from behind to narrowly beat the New South Wales Swifts 31-29.