VNSL 2022 - Saracens Mavericks v Loughborough Lightning

MON 2nd MAY | 19:00 | hertfordshire sports village

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coach’s comment

KATHRYN RATNAPALA

Head Coach & Director of Netball Welcoming you all here to HSV for our home game vs Loughborough Lightning.

With only 5 games left of our season, the league is really hotting up and it is vital for us to keep pushing and keeping connected as a squad.

The squad have been working tirelessly in training and putting each other under huge amounts of pressure to be able to keep building and learning.

We are looking forward to putting in the work and hearing you all in full voice to be able to be our 8th player in the crowd.

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match reporT saracens mavericks 55 - 46 Celtic Dragons Saracens Mavericks saw off a competitive Dragons team to win their second game on the bounce in the second half of the season.

Those coveted three points leapfrog them over Team Bath and bring them level with London Pulse in the top 4.

Head Coach, Kat Ratnapala, gave credit to the Welsh-based team before conceding that her side “made some silly mistakes” in a game where the Black and Reds, surprisingly, won just one quarter.

While delighted with the whole-

team performance, the Coach gave special mention to Britney Clarke, Beth Ecuyer-Dale and Aliyah Zaranyika: “I thought she [Britney] did phenomenally well and Beth and Brit’s connection throughout that game was fantastic. Beth can thread the needle and she did that really really well today. And Aliyah as well, she’s just coming into her own in that position in Wing Defence so that’s great to see.”

Beth Ecuyer-Dale was awarded Gilbert Player of the Match in a “well contested game” where her side “got smarter”.

Rhiannon Shore

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SATURDAY 9th april 2022

Hertfordshire sports village In this 12th round of the VNSL Mavericks chalk up their seventh victory of the season and make it 2 from 2 in the second half of fixtures. They are a team to be feared as they head to the Spring Showdown next weekend.

The Hertfordshire team picked up where they left off with the same starting seven as those who lead the charge against Wasps less than a week ago. The away team brought an attacking style of play to the Hertfordshire Sports Village and, according to Dragons Captain Nia Jones, “matched up really well.” This was most apparent in the matchlong pressure Dragons’ Keeper, Greene-Noel, applied to Britney Clarke in the Mavericks’ circle.

The first quarter ended level, 13-13.

Celtic Dragons began the second quarter strong, as indeed they began each quarter. The Green Army netted 3 goals unanswered but an interception from Quashie heralded the emphatic reply: 4 goals unanswered!

Now on the backfoot, the Dragons made a couple of changes. Most surprising was

gilbert Player of the Match

Beth Ecuyer-Dale taking off an uninjured GreeneNoel for, it transpired, a talk with Dragons’ Head Coach, TitmussMorris. Instead of returning to court, Clarke’s worthy rival stayed off for the closing 5 minutes of the quarter, during which time Mavericks embarked on a goal-scoring rampage. The Black and Reds went into the half time break with a 10-point lead.

With the Trinidad and Tobago International back in Clarke’s face, Celtic Dragons nibbled into Mavericks’ lead, only to suffer Mavericks’ reply once again.

In the final quarter Mavericks demonstrated the depth of talent in their squad as they brought on (birthday girl) Gabby Marshall, Georgia Lees and Yasmin HodgeEngland.

The Cardiff side pushed the two times champions but weren’t able to maintain the pressure they asserted in the opening minutes of each quarter. A disappointing outcome for the team whose second victory of the season continues to elude them.

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saracens mavericks GS

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Britney CLARKE

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Kadeen CORBIN

Sponsored by

Sasha CORBIN

Heritage Netball League GS

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Beth ECUYER-DALE

Chloe ESSAM

DOMINIC SLYVESTER

NIGEL WRAY

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Temalisi FAKAHOKOTAU

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Jodie GIBSON 6

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Georgia LEES

Gabriella MARSHALL

PAUL O’SHEA

Heritage Netball League

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GS GA WA C WD GD GK

TRAINING PARTNERS

Razia QUASHIE Sponsored by

BELMONT SCHOOL GS GA WA C WD

GS

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Yasmin HODGEENGLAND

Bella BAYLIS

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Bea SKINGSLEY Sponsored by

Marco V. Masotti

Ine-Mari VENTER

STAFF

GS

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HEAD COACH

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TEAM MANAGER

ASSISSTANT COACH

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Kathryn RATNAPALA

Camilla BUCHANAN

Sam CASTLE

Aliyah ZARANYIKA Sponsored by

sachel grant @SaracensMavs

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match reporT saracens mavericks 58 - 44 Severn Stars An impressive day one display between two flair full teams saw Saracens Mavericks pushed but eventually dim Severn Stars.

Fans were almost treated to a clash of the Ferns when Stars’ Cat Tuivaiti & Mavericks’ Temalisi Fakahokotau hit the court just moments after each other.

The Spring Showdown at the World Resorts Arena, Birmingham kicked off its final game of the day with a Mavericks centre pass and a Britney Clarke goal on the board.

The crowd were treated to plenty of tricks with no-look passes and all the show-woman-ship but with just as many tricks that didn’t come off, it was a back & forth quarter that ended 13-8 in Mavericks favour.

The next 15 minutes had all the ingredients of a spicy fruitcake.

The flavour and variety in the Black & Reds attack were unstoppable with the combination of Beth Ecuyer-Dale, Britney Clarke, Sasha & Kadeen Corbin.

The Hertfordshire side's counterattack transitions were like a hot

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knife through butter and whilst Clarke was sinking the goals under the pos,t it was the architectural work of Kadeen Corbin outside the circle that kept the Stars defence guessing.

With the small task of trying to keep quiet two of New Zealand’s best in Tuivaiti and Leota, Mavericks’ back unit of Raz Quashie, Jodie Gibson & Aliyah Zaranyika had their work cut out for them.

It was frightening to watch this trio unfold with interceptions being won that had no right to bewon, a combination of flys, back & ups and switches that were reminiscent of international standard.

No changes for Stars going into the third quarter with Dyke, Reed & Leota getting another shot at servicing fan favourite Tuivaiti.

It was the leading team with a single change and Gabby Marshall entered into the centre position replacing Ecuyer-Dale.

The momentum continued in Mavericks’ favour and with

SATurday 16th april 2022

Resorts World Arena

Morgan Harlow

minutes to go towards the end of the 15mins the Black & Reds injected Chloe Essam into Goal Attack

Mavericks took the quarter by two goals as it finished 46-32.

Fakahokotau who stole the show.

The final quarter was goal for goal but Mavericks came out on top with a respectable 58-44 scoreline.

The final quarter saw changes to the WA bib with Georgia Lees and Yasmin Hodge-England at GS coming in to showcase the depth of the Mavericks’ side but it was the long-awaited debut of Temalisi

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match reporT London Pulse 53 - 46 Saracens Mavericks Day 2 was to be a different affair with Mavericks in a position to overtake Pulse for the 3rd spot in the table.

Kat Ratnapala said pre match that “Every game is massive for us this year & yes it is tight at the top (of the table), but if you want to be in that top then you’ve got to be able to take out some people below you too” the Director of Netball said that to beat this Pulse team “We need to

play our own game & stay true to ourselves”.

Saracens Mavericks opened the game with the same starting line up as the previous day and didn’t hold back with a 3 goal lead.

Mavericks held the small lead for the first half of the quarter but with a loose ball into the hands of Pulse, the London rivals kick started their claw back and the quarter ended 13-13.

Morgan Harlow

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SUNDAY 17th april 2022

RESORTS WORLD ARENA Unchanged by both teams and evenly matched on speed it went goal-for-goal.

Mavericks were trying everything in their power defensively to get ahead with Quashie, Gibson &

Zaranyika’s efforts but the Pulse side were relentless. Mavericks took a 27-26 lead.

A 12 minute half time reset gave Pulse the better start, taking their rewards for the relentless defensive pressure. There were body’s taking hits and Mavericks’ infamous fast game was being detained. The connection with the centre court and Clarke was under a lot of pressure with only 10 shooting opportunitie

s they struggled to service her.

And whilst Gabby Marshall at WD the other end was working tirelessly to disconnect the link between Scholes, Honey and youngster Tchine, it just wasn’t enough.

goal threshold.

McDonald and Tchine continued to pressure the Mavs defence and rookie Jayda Pechova won a huge rebound from Mavericks to continue their final push.

Although Mavs held on, it was the final 5mins that saw Pulse stretch the lead to 7 goals and took the game 46-53.

Ratnapala said “it’s a tough loss to be honest, we weren’t ourselves today and we’ve just reflected on that. But we’ll push on-we play Bath next and we need to build for that”.

“The first quarter we should’ve been up by 3, we had lots of opportunities where we could take more ball to goal but we didn’t take them. So yeah, a disappointing start for us”.

Pulse sneaked ahead 34-38.

Mavericks came out firing in the final quarter, throwing all that they could at the Pink & Black’s but they couldn’t get past the 2 @SaracensMavs

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u21 pathway

Written by Eliza Barclay - U21 Captain

Season Review The 2021/2022 NPL season came to a close last weekend in Nottingham, and the Mavericks U21 squad can reflect on a season of resilient wins and disappointing losses.

In our opening weekend of fixtures, we faced a strong Team Bath side. It was clear that the squad found it hard to settle in their first game and looked nervous. Bath gave a slick and polished performance, resulting in a 59-35 loss. After the game we listened to solid advice from the coaches and with a positive attitude, we were more confidence from the first whistle as we faced Surrey Storm in Game 2. This was certainly a much stronger performance, with accurate shooting and good transitions through the midcourt and defensive pressure from the start. It was a determined win 58-49.

We made the long journey to Manchester to play Thunder in Game 3. We matched Thunder’s speed and movement well for the first half and the game was well within our reach where we only trailed by 2 goals for most of the second quarter.

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Manchester Thunder showed their class and why they remained unbeaten in the league all season with very few unforced errors and slick defending throughout the court. Despite a strong third quarter, Mavericks couldn’t sustain their momentum in the last quarter losing 57-43.

Our game against Pulse was a great display of resilience and sheer grit. Pulse had several regular VNSL players in the side which seemed to unsettle our squad in the first quarter, and we fell short of our best play ending up some way off the pace. There were too many unforced errors and loose balls which Pulse punished us for. But in the second quarter, the whole team came to life, and we started to dig deep, turn ball, convert turnovers in attack and put pressure throughout the whole court and were only 2 down at half time. It was a fantastic display of what we are capable of, and we stayed with Pulse throughout quarter 3 showing flair and strength throughout all areas of the court. But Pulse showed why they were NPL Champions with a very classy final quarter, taking the game 56-44.

Our journey to Worcester to play Severn Stars was rewarded with an impressive 61-37 with all 11 members of the squad taking the court. We started with great confidence which was maintained throughout the whole game and Severn Stars never really challenged the team throughout the whole game. An outstanding whole team performance.

being 38-29 up at the end of quarter 3, Lightning battled hard, but we held our nerve and thoroughly deserved the 50-44 win.

Arguably our best game of the season was against Loughborough Lightning. We found ourselves down 10-12 in the first quarter but knew this game was in our reach. We took a slender lead at half time 24-20 with outstanding shooting, slick and accurate passing and very few unforced errors. Despite

Probably our most disappointing game was against Wasps, particularly after such a hardfought win again Rhinos. We never really settled, Wasps stepped up and put out a strong performance and the squad just couldn’t find any momentum.

This was a team I felt we could and should have beaten.

Leeds Rhinos was our closest game and despite missing 3 key players, the squad displayed great strength and determination, winning the game 62-60.

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u21 pathway

Written by Eliza Barclay - U21 Captain

NPL CLosing WEEKEND Final League Match

North East

We faced North East in our last league game at the NPL Closing Tournament weekend in Nottingham. Mavericks put out a proud performance in their last game of the league. We were missing both Kendra and Lesley due to Covid, but Emily and Sach supported the squad giving strong advice and we entered the game confidently. With a different starting 7, the girls settled quickly, and we came away with a well deserved 59-45 win resulting in a 5th place finish in the league.

Opposition Player of Match:

Libby

Players’ Player of Match:

Helaina

Coach’s Player of Match:

Pippa

5/6/7 Place Playoffs

That afternoon we were put into the 5/6/7 place playoff against Rhinos and Wasps.

Rhinos

Rhinos brought a different level to this game. They stepped up their physicality and definitely had a point to prove having lost to us

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by 2 goals earlier in the season.

The team just couldn’t match their pace, and Rhinos forced us to make too many errors which they capitalised on. We couldn’t convert turnovers and fell short of our previous performance. A disappointing loss 67-47.

Opposition Player of Match:

Ziana

Players’ Player of Match:

Helaina

Coach’s Player of Match:

Sophia

Wasps

Our final game of the tournament on the final day was against Wasps. This was the last U21 game for some of the squad, so we wanted to put out a solid performance. Wasps never led by more than 2 goals until the last quarter, when we seemed to lose concentration and Wasps pulled away taking the win 53-41.

Opposition Player of Match:

Ziana

Players’ Player of Match:

Sophia

Coach’s Player of Match:

Libby

“I have been so proud to captain the U21 squad for the past 2 years and despite the disruption

by Covid, have seen us grow and develop as players under the care and guidance of Sach, Kendra, Lesley, and Emily.” Eliza Barclay

“I am really proud of the girls this season. It’s been a season like no other. A massive thank you to Kendra, Lesley, Emily, Hannah, Sophie & Marc and Kat. The achievements of this squad have been amazing. The standard of the U21 league is always phenomenal and this year was no exception. The friendships on and off court have been incredible during our final debrief there

were tears by many. Whilst a number of girls will be off to pastures new for the first time in a long time the core of the team will remain together.” Sachel Grant - U21 Head Coach

U21 Squad: Eliza Barclay, Aliyah Zaranyika, Amy Howell, Bella Baylis, Ella Blair, Ellie Oswick, Esme Papworth, Holly James, Isla Finlay, Kelsey Bashford, Leila, Allen, Libby Burgess, Naomi Allen, Pippa Dixon, Sam Harding, Sophia Pawlaczek, Tayla WrightBrown, Ziana Butt

Leadership Team: Eliza Barclay (captain), Pippa Dixon (Vicecaptain), Isla Finlay (Vice-Captain)

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U19 Pathway

Written by Josie Groves - U19 Captain

NPL Playoffs weekend A great weekend to sum up a great year for Saracens Mavericks U19s. We travelled down on Friday evening and after a quick team meeting, it was time to get ready for the weekend ahead and head to sleep.

Match vs Netball North East

Our last league game came with a fair amount of pressure as we knew we had to win to gain a bronze medal in the NPL. After a slow start, we found our groove and kept extending our league thanks to some magic movement

by Maddie in attack and top-notch defence from the duo at the back- Jo and Tori. The three took the honours of coaches’ player, players player and oppositions player respectively as they well and truly deserved. Final score 56-37

The wait was now on. Who was going to place 3rd, us, or Surrey Storm? WOOHOO! We came out on top due to goal average to gain our bronze medal for the year. This result also meant we then faced Wasps Netball in the 2nd vs 3rd place semi-final in the playoffs.

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Match vs Wasps Netball

Semi-final time!! After a closely contested match in the league, this semi was shaping up to be a great match. However, Wasps came out firing and quickly took control of the game. The chance of a place in the final was slowly slipping away but we still had time for a Mavericks debut as Bella took to court. Alyssa was on fire at GK, turning ball after ball and thoroughly deserved both oppositions and players player. Josie went down injured with 10 seconds of the 3rd quarter to go with a calf strain meaning she wouldn’t be returning to court for the remainder of the weekend- but she did manage to secure coaches player before having to take to the side-lines. Final score 38-66

We were now in the playoff for 3rd position and had the chance to take home another bronze medal. But first, time to present our league medals- and doing the honours was Kathryn Ratnapala who made the journey after a great win from the VNSL squad.

We enjoyed a pizza party whilst sharing our highlights from the first day before collapsing in our

beds for some well-earned sleep.

Match vs Surrey Storm

Final match of the year for our group, so we wanted to make it count. But Storm had the same idea and executed skills sublimely playing lovely netball and thoroughly deserving the win and the bronze medal in the playoffs.

Despite the loss, Mavericks had played some amazing netball, led

by Bella in the middle who ended up taking home the final opposition's player award and jointly gaining the players player award. She shared this award with Daisy who stepped up a gear in the second half, sending in some exceptional feeds to the superb Tianna under the post.

Onyinye was relentless at GD shutting down her player extremely well- the coaches decided that she highly deserved the final coaches player of the weekend.

Zoe worked tirelessly all weekend in the mid court feeding some delightful balls to our shooters and doing some lovely movements in attack. Phoebe’s patience and 2nd phase drives were a pleasure to watch and

Monika’s speed in the middle remained throughout. Makeda was as springy as ever, but it was Tori’s consistency in her ability to turn ball over which meant she walked away as our Mavericks player of the tournament and deserved it so much!

We’ve had a great year and would like to say a quick thank you to all our coaches, team manager, physio supports, all the officials that have helped our games run smoothly, Annette for all her outstanding photographs throughout the season and to England netball for everything they’ve done this year. We have had a great season and I truly believe a big factor of our success is the genuine friendship and love our group shares. It’s been an amazing year captaining this side and I can’t finish without mentioning that I only lost the toss to one team in the entire season.

'Thank you to everyone who has supported this group, coaches, Lisa and katy. Team manager Tina. S&C coaches Mike & Kaele and all the parents.'

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‘This weekend we finished the season off with another win.

Finishing 3rd in the NPL and taking home medals. The squad were so chuffed, and this created the atmosphere for the rest of the weekend play off fixtures Thank you to the players that trained hard and committed so hard to the task and the parents who supported them all through

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this season.'

'Thank you to Sachel & all the pathway coaches that are creating these amazing players we have in our age group squads.'

'This season was just amazing.'

Tricia Kilczynski - U19 Head Coach

U17 Pathway

Written by Jemima Watson - U17 Captain

Season Review The U17s have had a great season and finished 5th in the league overall after an excellent playoff weekend.

Players’ Player of Match:

Hannah

Coach’s Player of Match:

Katherine

Match v London Pulse

We started with a disappointing 42-52 loss against London Pulse due to a lack of match readiness which unfortunately meant the highest we could place overall was 5th.

Match v Surrey Storm

We kept the intensity high and continued to keep the gas on in our training sessions, which paid off as we beat Surrey Storm. An action-packed game with many incredibly interceptions brought by our talented defence. The team worked hard to convert these turnovers to goal so that we went 16-11 up in the first quarter. Unfortunately, many unforced errors meant we were behind by 2 at half time with 23-25 being the score. With an intense desire to come out victorious, the defence upped their game again; turning over ball left, right and centre. With a new combination in attack bringing a composure to the goal third, we managed to convert these turnovers to goal, the final score being 44-42, meaning we came out with a vital win.

Opposition Player of Match:

Farah

Players’ Player of Match:

Molly

Coach’s Player of Match:

Molly

Despite this loss, we picked ourselves up and worked hard to eliminate our errors and to become a cohesive squad in readiness for our next game, Severn Stars.

Match v Severn Stars

The squad travelled to Worcester and came home victorious with a 34-53 win. We executed our principles of play professionally and kept calm on all areas of the court.

Opposition Player of Match:

Molly 22

Opposition Player of Match:

Rhianna

Players’ Player of Match:

Rhianna

Coach’s Player of Match:

Rhianna

Match v Team Bath

We carried this intense determination and positivity into our training in the following weeks in preparation for our last NPL match, Team Bath. Despite our hard work in training, we couldn’t perform to our ability and weren’t able to take the win over Bath, narrowly missing out by 1 goal 51-52. We started well and went ahead in the 1st and 2nd quarter with tough contest and excellent shooting stats; however, our game wasn’t flowing as well as usual. In the last quarter we were battling to go ahead but we just fell short. It was our centre with 3 seconds to go and we didn’t manage to convert it.

Opposition Player of Match:

Katherine

Players’ Player of Match:

May

Coach’s Player of Match:

Farah

to Nottingham to compete in this fantastic event, 3 of those being reserves for each match. We went out for a team meal to fuel and bond before our first match against Wasps on the Saturday.

Match 1 v Wasps

Having watched the u21s play North East, we were riled up and ready to take on Wasps. After the first quarter we were 16-7 up against wasps with connections flowing through the court. We carried on this immense play into the remaining quarters with the final score being 54-40, leaving everyone buzzing for the next day of games. Both the defence and attack performed incredibly, taking interceptions, and calmly taking them to goal with our outstanding shooting stats.

Players’ Player of Match:

Farah

Coach’s Player of Match:

Melissa

NPL Playoffs Weekend

We kept our heads up high and ploughed through training, focusing on our key principles during our last gameplay training session before the NPL playoffs weekend. 15 players travelled up

Match 2 v Wasps

After more fun teambuilding, we were ready to take on Wasps again on Sunday morning. They brought a tough contest following their defeat the previous day. At half time we were level,23-23 and

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after a physical 3rd quarter Wasps were up 32-36. We didn’t let the score demoralise us and instead we put everything on the court with slick attack and vital turnovers in the closing minutes of the game, securing us a 48-45 victory.

Players’ Player of Match:

Izzy

Coach’s Player of Match:

Molly

Match 3 v Loughborough Lightning

A quick turnaround took us to our final game against Loughborough Lightning where we took a strong lead in the first half, 22-14. We were determined to leave everything we had to give on

court to finish the playoff weekend with a win. The intensity was high, and the team worked hard for each other, allowing us to win 44-37, putting us in 5th place overall.

Opposition Player of Match:

Rihanna

Players’ Player of Match:

Katherine

Coach’s Player of Match:

Katherine

This team undoubtedly has one of the most supportive and positive mindsets, constantly working tirelessly for each other and helping others when they fall, making next season even more exciting.

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