The 2010 CANA National Championships in Townsville were FANTASTIC !!!
The Presentation Night was also enjoyable.
The following players from AYC were selected in the Champion Teams:
U/13's - Sophie Saville, Emily Burn and Ashley Campbell
U/15's - Lauren Downward, Chelsea York, Emma Groves and Amy Rainbird
Masters - Marg Woolley, Cherie Howard, Cynthia Howard, Vicki Blackwell and Tracy Burn
CONGRATULATIONS to all who were selected - Well Done !!
The girls competed in the CANA National Championships U/15 GRAND FINAL against SAUCNA.
Although the girls were unable to beat SAUCNA in the two rostered games or the Second Semi Final on Friday, they started the first quarter with fantastic passing, FANTASTIC defence and superb accuracy when shooting for goal and went into the first break 7 goals up!!
Unfortunately, SAUCNA came out strongly in the second quarter and totally turned the game around after AYC made some changes and they were up by 5 goals at half time.
SAUCNA continued to pile on the goals and eventually won the game by 15 goals.
AYC did extremely well to make the Grand Final and thoroughly enjoyed the week of netball.
The AYC U/15 team played in the Preliminary Final against Corcoran Park Gold at 5pm today.
The girls started the game well, with strong passes, awesome defense and accurate shooting.
Emma Groves and Emily Miles combined well in defense and the Townsville team was under pressure from the "word go".
Bocky King and Nikayla Roach applied "body on body" pressure through the centre court and with Kalinda Gasparin playing in the WD position, these three centre court players were able to make space and feed the ball into the goalies (Chelsea York - GS and Lauren Downward - GA).
Players were rotated at half time and the team continued to pile on the goals.
The girls were extremely excited about their win and of course the prospect of being able to play in the GRAND FINAL tomorrow against SAUCNA.
Final Score: 37 -20
Best Players: Emma Groves, Emily Miles, Chelsea York & Lauren Downward
Finals have arrived !!!
Having finished in 2nd place after the rostered games, AYC played SAUCNA in the Second Semi Final at 9.30am this morning, with the winner going straight through to the Grand Final tomorrow.
The girls had played SAUCNA twice during the rostered games and were beaten both times by over 20 goals.
This time was to be a different game altogether.
With the temperature soaring and high winds playing havoc with ball, AYC started strongly and the teams were even at the first quarter break 8 - 8. Chels (GS) accounted for 6 and Lauren (GA) 2.
Emma was playing brilliantly in GD and was putting her oponent under enormous pressure.
The second quarter was different - the centre court players were struggling with being able to find space and when they did get it to our goalies they were unable to convert. Half time scores were: 11 - 18. Chels 2 and Lauren 1 in that quarter.
Centre court players were changed at half time, but the new players also had trouble finding space through the centre court. Chels and Lauren also struggled with the tight defense. Third quarter break scores were 15 - 28.
AYC came out playing hard in the last quarter and scored a few quick goals with SAUCNA failing to convert. Bock applied pressure to her player and Nikayla was feeding well into the goalies.
All the players (both teams) tired in the last few minutes of the game as the temperature soared, but it was all over with SAUCNA eventual winners by 13 goals. Chels - 4 & Lauren - 5.
Final Score: 24 - 37
Best players: Emma Groves, Chelsea York & Bocky King
This is the final rostered game for our AYC girls and they play the well oiled team - SAUCNA.
With the game being played at 6.30pm the weather conditions were very comfortable to play in.
Of course as reported in the earlier blog, this game was the second for the AYC team today. But it was SAUCNA's first and only game for the day.
Our defenders (Emma and Emily) worked hard against SAUCNAs goalies, and once again Emma Groves played an awesome game.
Our goalies accuracy alluded them at times, but their support of each other and unselfishness was great to see.
Annette rotated the Centre Court players to rest them as much as she could for the Finals tomorrow, and Bock worked hard in Centre and Wing Attack and was causing her opponents some grief.
Athough the girls lost this game, they can be proud that they decreased the margin this time and hopefully can do the same in the Semi Final against SAUCNA at 9.30am tomorrow morning.
Final Score: 30-54
Best Players: Emma Groves, Emily Miles and Lauren Downward
(I'm sorry - no photos again this time due to the lights of the night game that make my pictures very blurry :( )
The AYC U/15 team played Corcoran Park Gold for the second time today. This is the team that our girls lost to by 4 goals (29-33) earlier in the week.
Today was a totally different story.
The girls went out hard, took an early lead and continued to increase the lead at every break.
Emma Groves has had a FANTASTIC carnival and today she continued with her brilliant play.
The girls played very well and although it was understandable that they would tire in the last quarter due to extreme heat (33 degrees at 10am), they were still able to comfortably win the game 45-18.
The play their last rostered game at 6.30pm tonight against SAUCNA
Best Players: Emma Groves, Bocky King, Chelsea York and Lauren Downward
Today the girls have a "Rest Day" - no scheduled games.
The team spent the day with their families - for the three girls who didnt have their parents travel to Townsville with them, they joined other families.
Haylee joined us for the day.
We started off by picking the girls up at 8.00am. Then had breakfast (Pancakes) on the Strand - Yummmmm !!!
Ian then drove us to Willows (shopping centre) and the girls bought some swimming gear (bathers/boardies/tops) at the Ripcurl Surf Shop - they're very happy !!
We then headed back to the end of the Strand and boarded a Ferry to head to Magnetic Island for the rest of the day.
Ian hired 2 canoes and we paddled and swam in the water, then watched some of the other girls enjoy rides on the Jetskis.
We all met back at the Strand at 5.30pm for a family/team BBQ - then then afterwards the girls headed back to their rooms for an early night to ensure their ready for 2 games tomorrow.
