Columba College and University-Albion are through to the Dunedin premier club final after contrasting semifinal wins on Saturday.
Goal shoot Talei Pelasio has been unstoppable all season for College, but met her match with Columba defender Emilie Nicholson. While Pelasio has been able to hold freely all season, Nicholson is a space-marking defender who made this very difficult.
The game was very defensive, often going back and forth between turnovers.
Poppy Kilworth stood out for College at wing defence, she did a mountain of work around the circle edge to get her hands cleanly over the ball. This pressure forced the Columba midcourters to lift the passes, giving goal keep Maddie Tinnock plenty of opportunities to hunt intercepts. College led 10-9 at quarter time.
Pelasio found her rhythm to hold for the space on the baseline early in the second quarter, while goal attack Ella Mackenzie rolled around the top to separate the Columba defenders.
The lead changed often, but the halftime score was 22-23 to Columba.
The second half remained tight, Columba brought on Billie-Rose Craig to wing defence and Millie Mackenzie moved to centre. This change has had a great impact in other close games this season.
Columba did not give up. College were too relaxed with the ball in the final minutes, often not taking their feet to the pass, which gave room for Columba defence to intercept.
In the last 20 seconds, the score was 45-45 and College had the final centre pass. A crucial intercept from Nicholson was scored by a buzzer-beating goal from Brenna Lyons to win the game for Columba.
The other semifinal was an intense battle, but University-Albion A have been strong all season and intend to finish it that way.
Albion put the foot down early, scoring three unanswered goals to establish their lead in the first quarter. Grace Southby and Bridget Thayer combined well in the Albion shooting circle, they were dynamic and played off each other to free up space.
Some nuggety defence from Physed in the centre third enabled them to claw back the deficit.
Laura Axcell earned the starting goal keeper bib for Albion, and was set the difficult task of defending Physed’s Meleitia Tatupu, who had court time for the Southern Steel this season.
The first quarter was tight, but Albion led 17-15 at the break.
Physed wing attack Gemma Rowcroft, had a consistently great game. She was patient with the ball and used fakes to ensure a clean pass into her shooters.
Lose Fainga’anuku was brought on at goal keep in the second quarter and had an immediate impact. Fainga’anuku recently attended the Netball World Cup playing for Tonga. Her time away playing against some of the world’s best netballers would have given her valuable confidence going into this game.
The game remained tight, but a rebound from Fainga’anuku and an intercept from captain Brooke Callon helped Albion push out to a six-goal lead. Tatupu was then called for two offensive contacts under the post, which did not help Physed’s confidence.
Ashlyn Koce proved her versatility at both wing attack and wing defence for Albion, but was especially impressive on defence. She was a key part of their defensive wall which put Physed’s attackers under immense pressure. At halftime, the score was 31-15 to Albion.
Bridget Thayer had one of her best games of the season for Albion, missing just one of her 40 goals. She was composed under pressure, and often used a roll to get herself in good shooting positions.
Physed centre Marina Ferguson did not give up the entire game. She encouraged her team to keep pushing but Physed were unable to get the turnovers they desperately needed, and Albion finished the game strongly.
In the bottom half of the table playoffs, St Hilda’s snatched a 49-42 win over Southern Magpies and Physed B beat College B 52-40.
— Madaleine Mansfield
