Round 1 match report | Vixens Academy vs West Coast Fever Reserves

After a close first quarter spent cementing combinations, Vixens Academy pushed out to a comfortable lead in the second and third – beyond the reach of Fever despite their strong super shot shooting.

Q1 | Fever Reserves 13 – 12 Vixens Academy
Vixens Academy started the match with their Reserves league-experienced players plus Ruby Pekin-Schlicht on debut in GD. Goal attack Mia Lavis kept the scoreboard ticking for Vixens Academy with her drives and sweeps across the top of the circle, fed by the fast midcourt combination of her fellow Melbourne Vixens training partners Zali Anderson (vice-captain) in wing attack and Ally O’Connor (captain) in centre. Fever’s moving shooting circle of Sloan Burton and Sophie Eastaugh proved effective, but Vixens’ unit defence caused headaches for the midcourters moving down court. A super shot by Burton helped Fever to a 1-point lead at quarter time.

Q2 | Fever Reserves 22 – 30 Vixens Academy
It was a seesawing affair to kick off the second quarter with both team’s defenders picking up ball.
After an early 4-goal run by Fever, Vixens Academy responded with their own 5-goal run, forcing multiple changes by the reigning premiers including training partner Skyla Payne into goal shooter, Eastaugh into wing attack, and positional switches in in wing defence and centre between Jessica Repacholi and Charisse Rond. Undeterred by the changes, and aided by Ruby Turner moving into wing defence, Vixens Academy put their foot down in the power five. Both Bella Hodgson and Lavis scored a super shot to put Vixens Academy up by 8 at half time.

Q3 | Fever Reserves 33 – 44 Vixens Academy
Vixens Academy's Georgia Moody made her Reserves debut in wing attack to start the third quarter, while Anderson moved into centre, and Fever brought Tierrah Miller into wing attack. Maggie Caris (vice-captain) and Pekin-Schlicht were on fire this quarter, picking up long feeds and causing errors down court to push out Vixens Academy's lead. Lavis continued to go to post with her calm shot and step backs to overcome the long arms of Fever’s SSN-experienced defender Caitlyn Brown. With the lead out to 15, Fever made more changes, bringing training partner Ava Buselich into centre and moving Eastaugh back to goal shooter, while Vixens brought training partner Charli Nicol into goal defence. Burton scored three super shots for Fever and Lavis one for Vixens Academy to finish the period.

Q4 | Fever Reserves 47 – 54 Vixens Academy
Anderson moved back to wing attack and Pekin-Schlicht to goal defence to kick off the final period for Vixens Academy. Fever again mixed up their shooting circle, putting Eastaugh out front in goal attack and Burton in goal shooter. Brown and Scarlet Jauncey also switched back to assume their starting positions of goal defence and keeper for Fever. Despite struggling to find their shooters on occasion, Vixens Academy’s middies were patient feeding the ball, while Fever struggled to convert valuable gains. With the margin pushing back out, Fever brought on training partner Eva Petkovic into wing attack. Vixens Academy responded with their own changes, moving Taylah Brown back to wing defence where she started the game to pick up more ball, and putting training partner Casey Dunstan into wing attack for her Reserves debut. Fever finished the game strong to win the quarter with Jauncey blocking Lavis’ shot, Burton sinking three more super shots, and Eastaugh one of her own, but it wasn’t enough to stop Vixens Academy from taking the game. Training partner Sahara Ball made her Reserves debut for Vixens Academy at goal shooter in the final seconds of the match.

THE COACH & CAPTAIN SAY
Vixens Academy head coach Wendy Jacobsen spoke post-game about this week’s match day squad including training partners Charli Nicol, Casey Dunstan, and Sahara Ball. “Our training partners provide great versatility for our group, and it really is selected week by week. The training partners this week did a fantastic job, but the ones at home also were pushing for selection.”

On what pushed the lead out in the second and third quarters, Jacobsen said, “I think we lifted our intensity and our intent, particularly in defence, and won a lot of ball. Our conversion through court and to the shot also improved in the second and quarters.”

Vixens Academy captain Ally O’Connor spoke about facing Fever Reserves’ SSN and World Youth Cup-experienced athletes on court. “It was definitely a challenge, but I think that's something we really rose to. They’re strong bodies – they’re training and playing alongside the best netballers in the world at the moment – so it was a good opportunity for us to come out firing, and I think we took that challenge on really well.”

Regarding what changed in the second quarter, O’Connor said, “Something that Vixens Academy really pride ourselves on is how united we are, so I think we really started to connect on court as a team but individually as players as well… I think we were really scrappy in the best way – we fought for the hard balls - and in the end that got us over the line.”

NEXT UP

Vixens Academy will take on GIANTS Netball Reserves on Sunday 3 May at John Cain Arena at 6.30pm following the Melbourne Vixens Round 8 SSN match. Admission is included with all SSN tickets to this match.

Stream all Super Netball Reserves games via Kommunity TV/Code Sports and keep up to date with scores via Play HQ.