MATCH PREVIEW | Surrey Storm vs Saracens Mavericks (NSL Rd 3)

Wing Defence Aliyah Zaranyika is expecting a tough challenge against a cohesive Surrey Storm outfit on Saturday evening.

Last season’s semi-finalists haven’t won either of their opening two games this season, but they will no doubt be right in the mix for the play-off places come the end of the season.

Zaranyika is expecting their attack to pose some serious questions to her side at the weekend, but remained confident that her side had the tools at their disposal to take their chances.

“They are a really good team and they are really strong across the board. They’re so cohesive, especially in attack. They’ve played together for a while, and they’ve got target shooters which will pose a challenge for every side in the league, but I think we’ve got the strength in our group to combat them.”

Last weekend, Mavericks secured a first win of the season against Leeds Rhinos and Zaranyika was delighted with how her side had stuck to their structure throughout the game.

“We were all ecstatic to win against Rhinos. It was a great result but the thing we were most pleased with was how we stuck to our processes and stuck to the gameplan. That was a really great match for us and has given us something to really work from building into this weekend.”

After an opening day draw, Mavericks’ performance went up a gear against Leeds, with Zaranyika admitting that her side had learnt a lot between round one and round two.

“We looked to finetune things and get the gameplan in place against Rhinos. I know we had several pre-season matches, but how it feels on court is very different when you’re playing league matches. We learnt a lot from the Dragons game and were really able to use that against Leeds. Now, we need to look to keep doing that moving forward.”

Tomorrow evening’s clash will be a local derby and Zaranyika explained that playing in that sort of match definitely upped the excitement within the group.

“Every game is important, but it always adds something playing against a local rival. Storm are a really tough team, which makes it a big match whenever you play them but knowing that you’re playing against a local rival does add something extra to the game. We want to go out there and show that we can compete and win.”