Delivering unbeaten records during pool play, Tauranga and Christchurch Red headlined the eight teams who have advanced to tomorrow’s quarter finals at the NetballSmart Netball NZ Open Champs being held in Dunedin.
With their fortunes on the line in Thursday’s final round of pool matches at the Edgar Centre, last year’s finalists North Harbour and Hamilton City delivered when it counted with respective wins over Waitakere and Auckland to cement their spots.
In the end, the top eight seeds all kept their campaigns on track to progress to the top eight and the chance to contest Saturday’s final with Tauranga and Christchurch Red, seeded third and fifth respectively, being unbeaten through four games of pool play.
Eighth-seeded Invercargill also kept a clean sheet following two wins and a draw to top Pool A, one point ahead of North Harbour. Finishing second in their respective pools, Auckland, Manawatu and Counties Manukau Cluster also made it safely through.
“It was good to see that when it mattered and teams really needed to front up, they were able to step up,” NZU21 head coach Julie Seymour said.
“From now, it will be all about their fitness starting to come into play. Some of these athletes don’t play much tournament style netball anymore, so that side of things will definitely play at part from here on in.”
In a big day for teams tomorrow (Friday), Tauranga will square off against Auckland, Invercargill meet Counties Manukau Cluster, Hamilton City come up against Manawatu and Christchurch Red will clash with North Harbour to determine the semi-finalists.
The semi-finals will be played on Friday afternoon along with on-going matches to determine placings from fifth to 19. Final play-off matches will be played on Saturday, culminating in the grand final at 1pm.
“From what I’ve seen so far, it’s been a really good standard of play and a good style of netball,” Seymour said.
“There’s been no niggly play, cautions or any of that type of thing and it will great if that continues into the games where there’s going to be more pressure.
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing the diverse mix of players here. There’s some older athletes involved and a few ANZ (Premiership) players mixing it with the younger athletes and it’s great to have that variety in experience levels to help guide the younger ones.
“I’ve got a few athletes in my U21 group at the moment and it was really nice to see them out there with some more experienced players. You can do all the coaching in the world but you can’t beat being on court with some experienced players and having them guiding you and it’s been great seeing that.
“It’s great that players are wanting to play at these tournaments, that they see real value in it and certainly from a development point of view, it’s giving another group of athletes an opportunity to get court time and grow and develop, along with the coaches, umpires and everyone else involved.”