1sts vs. Newcastle 1sts:
24-36
After a well fought, well deserved game against Manchester last week, the firsts had plenty of confidence travelling to Newcastle for the 2nd match of the season. With Newcastle being promoted this season it was a must win game.
Newcastle came at Leeds hard in the first quarter and we found ourselves down by 3 goals after 15 minutes. We kept ourselves within reach of winning the game throughout the match but unfortunately fell behind in the final quarter to lose the game 24-36.
Overall it was a really disappointing game for the girls. There were small areas of strong play from us but generally we didn’t turn up on the day which was gutting but we know we only have ourselves to blame. The game did not show how hard we had worked in training over the last 5 weeks, and certainly didn’t show the talent that is within the squad. I’m sure next week we will all come out fighting with a lot to prove.
2nds vs Leeds Met 2nds:
34-40
Tensions were running high after we had previously defeated Leeds Met two weeks ago at Varsity. The whole team knew it was going to be a tough match but we were ready to go out our hardest. A slow start did not help our hopes of taking the lead in the first quarter where we came off being down by a couple of goals. Both teams were determined to be victorious. This made us go back on fighting our hardest, with some excellent interceptions in the circle by Georgia Blessed and Becky France, we were starting to turn round the goals. However Met’s strong centre court and defence were proving to be a challenge for us. After a positive and motivational team talk at the end of the third quarter, we came on ready to try our very best for the last fifteen minutes. Getting the score back to within two goals, from some excellent shooting and movement by our shooters and some great tips in defence by Lucy Scott, the game was getting closer and closer. Unfortunately Met just took the lead from us and ended up with a win. However, it was a close game and every player gave 100%.
MOTM: Katie Hayes
3rds vs. York St. Johns 1sts:
36-51
With our first win last week against Teeside, the pressure was on for the 3rds to continue our winning streak. Unfortunately due to the previous match running over, we were unable to have a full warm up as a result of time constraints. We knew that we could not use the first quarter to warm up and that we had to go all out working at our full potential. The first quarter started quite shaky and despite our best intentions we were not fully warmed up meaning we started quite slowly. York St. Johns managed to turn over a few of our centre passes with the quarter ending 16-11.
Going into the second quarter we knew we had to come back fighting to even the gap, however some poor decisions by the umpires sent all of our heads down. We did not have as many shooting opportunities this quarter leaving the score at 25-16 at the end.
In the third quarter it was evident that we needed to change some things, however it was hard as every single member of the team was working at full pace. Katie came on at GD and Lauren F switched with Lauren W to WA. Centre court was working very well and some great interceptions from Amy Needham showed that we had not given up the fight. 100% shooting stats from Jess this quarter showed the opposition that we were still able to work through extreme pressure and obstruction from the opposition’s defence. The quarter ended at 35-26
With only nine goals between us and York St Johns, we knew that we could get this back and win the game, however our hard work wasn’t hard enough to pull it back in the end. Despite some great marking from Katie at GD, it was very frustrating in defence as a result of very questionable decisions. again 100% shooting stats in this quarter from Chavonne demonstrated that we are still able to perform under pressure and keep fighting till the end. The game ended 51-36 to York St Johns.
Opposition’s MOTM: Chavonne Duckworth
Captains’s MOTM: Amy Needham
Leeds 4ths vs Leeds Trinity 1sts
46-18
After a draw last week, the girls were desperate to get a first win of the season. After a shortened warm up, we started slow and both sides kept the score equal for the first part of the first quarter. After a couple of interceptions from Georgie Andes and Sam Pidgeon, the momentum turned in our favour and we pulled away from Trinity, finishing the first quarter ahead. A couple of changes were made and the second quarter saw some brilliant work in attack, particularly from Lauren Fahy and Emily Read, helping to push Leeds even further ahead of Trinity. We maintained our lead and made some more changes in the final quarter. Onah had a great 15 minutes at GK, making some brilliant interceptions. The girls worked extremely hard to extend our lead, leaving the final score at 46-18. Great win for the 4s, well done everyone!
Player of the Match: Emily Read
Captains Player of the Match: Catriona Leggat
5th Team vs York St Johns 3rds
Score: 43:15
After thrashing Durham in our first game of the season last week, all the girls in the 5th team were in fighting to spirit to go out and clinch another win this week away against York St Johns 3rds! The girls took a little while to get into the game with the score being very close throughout the first quarter but the girls managed to just keep ahead of
York ending the first quarter 9-7 to us. Great work from the whole team up the court allowed us to pull ahead a bit more in the 2nd quarter ending 20-9 to us. In the third and final quarter we had several fresh legs on court which seemed to be just what we needed when we pulled even further forward, with great work on centre court between Claire and Zoe, along with frequent fantastic interceptions from Olivia in defence! The third quarter ended at 35-12 to us and with Pebbles and Holly on top form in the circle we ended the game 43-15!! Another fantastic win to LEEEEDS UNI! A massive well done to all the girls who are definitely beginning to gel well together on court- I’m sure I can say on everyone’s behalf that we can’t wait for our future games!
6th Team vs Bishop Burton 1sts
Score:30-14
Wednesday saw the 6th team compete in our first BUCS match against Bishop Burton’s 1st team. We got off to a slow but positive start and ended the first quarter 5-1 up. In the 2nd quarter the team began to really gel and some great shooting from Bex and Becca allowed us to stay ahead. We saw a fantastic effort and lots of interceptions from Nadine and Frankie who worked well together in defence. Some team changes at half time allowed the team to pull away further and it proved to be a very strong first match! Well done girls!
MOTM: Nadine for playing extremely well AND out of position (from WA to GD).