Caterham 1st VII In Momentous Victory v Guildford High School
Last Thursday, 22 February, the 1st VII took on Guildford High in a home fixture which is always our biggest test of the season. The girls went into the match feeling very confident, and quite rightly so. This is the best prepared a 1st VII team has been at this point, having enjoyed a succession of hugely purposeful training sessions and some superb recent results against top netballing schools, including a 32-30 win v Hurstpierpoint and a 15-15 draw v Brighton College.
The girls hit the ground running and were two goals up after the first quarter. GHS put us under huge defensive pressure and with a very accurate GS, any mistake was quickly punished. However, Caterham adapted their play to ensure that every pass was flat, hard and fast and that every drive was a positive one, through any and every gap that they could find on the court. Our own full court defence was impressively strong, and whilst opportunities for interceptions were limited we took some superbly clean ones, as well as forcing a high number of held balls. This squad have benefited hugely from having three impressively consistent shooters in Maja, Hanna and Pippa. Maja and Hannah were in at GS and GA for this match and despite the incredible pressure from the GHS circle defence, as well as knowing that they were in a goal for goal game, the girls slotted away their shots with quite incredible confidence. Going into the final quarter the score was 25-21, and despite a GHS fight-back which brought them back to a draw with around four minutes to go, Caterham were not going to let this opportunity go and they eventually pushed on to win the match 32-28.
The significance of a win against Guildford High, with so many girls competing for places in their squads, cannot be over-estimated, and this special set of girls have certainly put in all of the hard work necessary to achieve such an impressive result.
Having qualified for the forthcoming Surrey Finals (Sunday 11 March, Epsom College) in tremendous style, finishing the day undefeated with wins against Surbiton, Wimbledon High, Royal Russell and JAGS, the girls are in a great position to challenge for the Surrey Schools title but we will wait and see what happens on the day. We could not be prouder of everything that these players have already achieved – very well done, girls.
1st VII: Maja, Hannah (captain), Pippa, Katie, Roberta, Emily, Olivia (captain), Elise, Antonia.
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