If Otago has mastered anything this season it is the art of the comeback.
The province turned around a six-goal halftime deficit in the semifinal to beat Canterbury 61-50 and book a place in the final today, against Waikato.
Otago has not won the national championships since 1998 and had to settle for second last year when it lost to Canterbury.
Earlier in the tournament, a place in the playoffs looked shaky after losses to Auckland Waitakere and Wellington in the second and third rounds.
The team also let a nine-goal lead slide in its opening game against Waikato and ended up drawing a match it should have won. Faced with the very real prospect of missing out on the semifinals, the team has rallied and played some quite brilliant netball.
It outscored the defending champion 21-10 in the third quarter to seize control of the semifinal and added an exclamation mark, winning the final period 16-10 to complete the 11-goal drubbing.
Coach Deb Tasi-Cordtz apologised for the dreadful fright the team has given its fans this season but said her side was peaking at just the right time.
Trailing 30-24 at halftime, she reminded her side there would be no second chances this time.
"I said to them, 'If you want it, you've got to do it now'. Whoever wanted it more would do it and we did."
Kate Shearer replaced Olivia Bates at goal attack and added some zip but Tasi-Cordtz said it was a complete team effort and she was reluctant to single any one player out.
"I believed in them but we just hadn't found another gear. Kate coming on made a difference down that attack end but everyone sort of stepped up and got really hungry."
A stunning effort in the third quarter swung the game Otago's way and the team kept the momentum right through to the final whistle.
"We kept attacking and I asked them to imagine we were behind and to keep playing hard, because you never know in a semifinal, and Canterbury have won the title the last two years.
"My young girls showed real maturity today. I can't single out anyone out."
Te Paea Selby-Rickit was impressive once again, with 52 goals from 60 attempts.
The midcourt combination of Gina Crampton, Shannon Francois and Stacey Peeters showed its class and the defence end is a real strength with Demelza McCloud and Storm Purvis doing a sterling job.
"We didn't have a good start. A couple of weeks ago I said if we want to win this thing we're going to have to win four games in a row. We've won three, with one more to go."
In the other semifinal, Waikato had a 61-49 win against Auckland-Waitakere. Waikato dominated the match leading 30-23 at halftime and building on that to win by 12 goals.
In the other top-six game, Wellington defeated Bay of Plenty 54-41 and will play North in a promotion-relegation game. Bay of Plenty will play Western in the other promotion-relegation game, after Western beat North 53-46 to seal pole position in the bottom six.
