Narrogin and Districts Netball Association Rising Stars teams travelled to Albany on July 18 and 19 to compete in the Great Southern Regional Championships.
The NDNA open women’s team had an exceptional run, heading into the final day of competition having only suffered one defeat to Albany.
Facing off again in the grand final on Sunday afternoon, NDNA were outstanding in a tight game with the teams going goal for goal in the first half.
Sophie Beasley was a dominant force in the centre, with precise feeds into the circle to shooters Regina Kickett and Georgia Dawes.
Maddy Petchell, Emmi Duff and Bella Logie provided some incredible intercepts in defence to ensure Albany were continually under pressure in the second quarter.
As the game progressed, Albany made some key changes which resulted in several important turnovers, swinging the game in their favour during the third quarter.
NDNA couldn’t quite catch them from this point on and Albany ran out Great Southern Championship winners 61-54.
Kicking off their campaign on Friday night, the 16-and-under NDNA team won against a strong Albany Green side.
On Saturday morning they suffered two losses to Esperance and then Albany Gold, but ran out winners against Katanning.
The carnival was tough competition for the NDNA Rising Stars 14-and-under team, who had several player changes and many close games.
On Friday night, they faced off against Albany Gold, who would go on to win the division.
In an intense game, the girls’ speed, agility and fitness were tested, with Albany Gold setting a standard for the weekend.
NDNA managed to match Albany Gold in moments of the game but were unable to convert important turnovers, going down 34-18.
The NDNA girls then took on Esperance on Saturday morning in a fantastic display of netball where they were goal for goal until three-quarter-time, but NDNA made several unforced errors in the final quarter, which saw Esperance run out winners 22-17.
NDNA were then defeated by Denmark, but seemed to hit their stride against Albany Green in the afternoon.
The team finished the weekend with a loss to Katanning and a strong win against Ongerup.
Zara Ninyette starred in the team as goal keeper for NDNA throughout the weekend and was named most valuable player.
The 13-and-under team had a tough weekend on the scoreboard losing all of their games, however they displayed resilience and great sportsmanship all weekend, still making NDNA proud.
The 12-and-under team began their campaign with a series of losses, but Sunday morning saw a determined NDNA step onto the court, and after some positional changes by coach Chloe Campbell and assistant coach Amber Moulton, the team found cohesiveness and achieved wins against Esperance and Kojonup.
A huge thank you to Netball WA and all organisers, coaches, managers, officials, players, umpires and spectators for a fantastic weekend of netball.
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