The netball 1st VII maintained their unbeaten record this season with a win over Bradfield College on Saturday, but it was a close run thing.
Epsom started the match strongly and established a 5 goal lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to 100% shooting accuracy by Georgia McGrath and Izzy Reid.
Bradfield rallied in the second quarter, counteracting through the court with tactical defence, and cut the Epsom lead to 2 goals, but the College girls stayed calm and varied their game, with Bella Dialdas showing great vision and game sense to play the long ball straight into the attacking third and over the heads of Bradfield’s zone defence. The exceptional defensive pairing of Emma Stanley and Emma Morgan halted Bradfield’s run of goals and Epsom took the lead back to 5 going into the half time break.
The second half proved to be the most exciting and nerve racking of the season with Bradfield again pulling closer to Epsom, at one stage being just one goal behind. The game then went goal for goal and had it not been for the continued exceptional shooting, under intense pressure, of Georgia McGrath and Izzy Reid, Bradfield could well have taken the lead.
The girls stayed focused, however, and played some very intelligent netball to maintain their lead throughout the remainder of the game and the final score was a well deserved 24-22 win for Epsom.
Overall, the annual block fixture against Bradfield College proved to be a very evenly matched contest with both schools winning 9 of the 18 matches played and just a few goals deciding some nail biting encounters.
Bradfield took the spoils in the 2nd, 4th and 5th VII fixtures but the Epsom 3rd VII came from 1-5 down in the first quarter to win 12-7 thanks to some outstanding shooting by Bethany Burns and Lyn Sze Ng and a player of the match performance by Beth Fielding.
Honours were even in the U16 fixtures, with Bradfield winning the U16A and U16D matches and Epsom holding sway in the U16B and U16C games.
In the U15 games, Epsom had a clean sweep of wins, the pick of which was a 28-3 victory for the U15B VII, which saw a masterful display of shooting by Rosy Payne and Lara Watson, who were named joint players of the match.
It was a different story in the U14 games, however, with Epsom’s only success coming in an 11-7 victory by the U14C VII.