England-based T&T senior women’s team netballer Samantha Wallace had a near perfect shooting display in her “Player of the Match” performance to lead Hertfordshire Mavericks to a 55-50 win over defending champions Surrey Storm in the final round match of matches in the Vitality Netball Super League. The action unfolded at the Copper Box Arena, London, England, yesterday.
Playing before a packed audience of 6,000 spectators, the 22-year-old Wallace coming off a 37-42 scoring performance in a win on Monday versus Team Bath picked up from where she left off by converting 40 of 44 attempts to help her team to its sixth in seven matches and a share the lead on the eight-team table with Manchester Thunder.
The Toco-born Wallace who plays locally for the University of T&T was a game-time decision for Mavericks coach Sam Bird due to a chest injury sustained in Monday’s win. However, all those concerns soon faded away as Wallace soon got into her stride with seven goals in the first period as both teams went in 10-10 at the end of the first period.
The second period proved to be a pivotal one for Mavericks as the six-four goal-shoot proved to be a handful for opponents as her team closed the first half with a 27-20 lead.
With Wallace and goal attack Sophie Hankin on top of their game, Mavericks continued to control the flow and tempo of the match and each Storm closed in, New Zealand centre court player Joline Johannson went to the T&T starlet, who responded with a goal each time as they closed out the penultimate quarter with a 40-34 advantage.
For most of the final period Mavericks maintained a comfortable seven points lead and in the end coasted to a five-goal victory.
Wallace shot for 91 percent , Hankin added 15 from 21 attempts for 71 per cent. For Storm, which was coming off a morale boosting win over Manchester Thunder, England international Rachel Dunn scored 30 of 37 and England international and Hall of Famer Pamela Cookey 20 of 24 in the
losing effort Overall Wallace now has 203 goals from 233 attempts for Mavericks to be the fourth best scorer in the league while Marvericks has 18 points and a 6-1 record, the same as Manchester Thunder which battled past Yorkshire Jets, 49-44 in yesterday’s other match.
However, Thunder which handed Mavericks its only loss so far this season before losing to Storm itself have a better goal-difference of plus-84 to plus-66, On Friday night, Celtic Dragons improved to 2-5 after beating Team Northumbria 53-45, and Team Bath scolded Loughborough Lightning, 60-44. A national women’s team basketballer as well, Wallace has been consistent in her debut season so far in the league.
Tomorrow Wallace and her team-mates will have a chance to go top of the league when they host Celtic Dragons at Hertfordshire Sports Village.
Latest standing
Teams P W L F A Pts
Manchester Thunder 7 6 1 409 320 18
Hertfordshire Mavericks 7 6 1 381 315 18
Surrey Storm 7 4 3 381 317 12
Team Bath 7 5 2 367 317 15
Loughborough Lightning 7 3 4 359 353 9
Celtic Dragons 7 2 5 337 395 6
Team Northumbria 7 2 5 285 379 6
Yorkshire Jets 7 0 7 267 385 0
