RAVEN ‘A’ were crowned champions of the 2013 SVL/JNA Major

League with a close 43-42 win over Alpha in the final at the National Arena last Saturday.

The Christopher Smart-coached Raven ‘A’ pulled off the win in a thrilling encounter that netball fans and players seemingly enjoyed from start to finish.

The game was close all the way and started with Raven ‘A’ taking a 10-9 lead at the first quarter break after the scores were locked at 8-8. Raven ‘A’ led throughout the second quarter by outscoring Alpha 14-9 through shooters Novelette Vassell and Tashanna Bloomfield to go into the half-time break with a 24-18 lead.

Raven ‘A’ came under pressure in the third quarter when Alpha rallied nicely through the shooting of Natalie Grant that kept them in contention. It was a result of some good centre court play by Alpha’s trio that saw them trailing 31-30 by out-shooting Raven ‘A’ 12-7 at the final break.

The fourth quarter was really the thriller as both teams were engaged in a ding-dong tussle after Alpha scored at the start to level 31-31, and from then on it was action and excitement.

Alpha managed to go up 33-31 but Raven ‘A’ fought back with two straight goals to even the scores at 33-33. Again, after the scores were even two more times, Alpha went up 37-35 until Raven ‘A’ tied again at 40-40, with two- and-a-half-minutes remaining.

The battle was now on for the winning goals with the scores locked at 42-42 with less than one minute remaining. However, Alpha’s goal-shooter Natalie Grant missed an easy shot with Raven ‘A’ countering quickly to send the ball to goal-attack Bloomfield, who managed to score in the last 10 seconds to clinch the title.

For Raven ‘A’, goal-attack Bloomfield netted 28 goals from 32 attempts and her goal-shooter Vassell scored 15 goals from 18 attempts, while for Alpha, goalshooter Grant netted 30 goals from 36 attempts and goal-attack Suzanne Brown scored 12 goals from 13 attempts.

Winning coach Smart said he was elated on your team’s victory. “The girls played really well. When Alpha took over early in the fourth quarter, I told my players to keep their composure more and we managed to gain on them, tied the game, and won on the last shot in the final seconds,” Smart said.

Meanwhile, Dwight Sutherland, manager and assistant coach of Alpha, said: “I told the players to go back to the basic way of playing the game when Alpha had taken over the lead. However, the most crucial of the lot was missed from goal-shooter Grant that really cost us the game, as we could have held out and won.”