Match Report | Saracens Mavericks' Spring Showdown of two halves!

Saracens Mavericks 58-44 Severn Stars: 16^th April 2022

Saracens Mavericks 46- 53 London Pulse: 17^th April 2022

Saracens Mavericks’ Spring Showdown of two halves!

An impressive day one display between two flair full teams saw Saracens Mavericks pushed but eventually dim Severn’s Stars. 

Fans were almost treated to a clash of the Ferns when Super Stars’ Tuivaiti & Mavericks’ Fakahokotau hit the court just moments after each other.

Day two had the temperature turned up with Mavericks facing rivals London Pulse. In only their 6th ever encounter Mavericks’ were sitting 3-2 in front but with 3rd place in the league up for grabs, Pulse were gunning to equalise their history and claim that 3rd spot.

Head Coach Kat Ratnapala was pleased with her day one efforts saying about her team’s performance “I got 12 players out there which I’m pleased with, with the double header.”

She admitted to not getting 4 consecutive quarters out of her team but stated “I am pleased to get them all out there to experience court time. We’ve got Pulse tomorrow and it’s important that we can get players out there, to rest a few and push on for tomorrow”.

Quarter 1

The Spring Showdown at the World Resorts Arena, Birmingham kicked off it’s final game of the day with a Mavericks centre pass and a Britney Clarke goal on the board. 

The crowd were treated to plenty of tricks with no look passes and all the show-woman-ship but with just as many tricks that didn’t come off it was a back & fourth quarter that ended 13-8 in Mavericks favour.

Quarter 2

The next 15 minutes had all the ingredients of a spicy fruitcake. The flavour and variety in the Black & Reds attack were unstoppable with the combination of Beth Ecuyer-Dale, Britney Clarke, Sasha & Kadeen Corbin. 

The Hertfordshire sides counter attack transitions were like a hot knife through butter and whilst Clarke was sinking the goals under the post it was the architectural work of K.Corbin outside the circle that kept the Stars defence guessing. 

But it was the spicy work of the Version2 sponsored sides defence end that was the talk of the B-town.

With the small task of trying to keep quiet two of New Zealand’s best in Tuivaiti and Leota, Mavericks’ back unit of Raz Quashie, Jodie Gibson & Aliyah Zaranyika had their work cut out for them.

It was frightening to watch this trio unfold with interceptions being won that had no right to be won, a combination of flys, back & ups & switches that were reminiscent of international standard. 31-19.

Quarter 3

No changes for Stars going into the third quarter with Dyke, Reed & Leota getting another shot at servicing fan favourite Tuivaiti.

It was the leading team with a single change and Gabby Marshall entered into the Centre position replacing Ecuyer-Dale. 

Momentum continued in Mavericks’ favour and with minutes to go towards the end of the 15mins the Black & Reds injected Chloe Essam into Goal Attack

Mavericks took the quarter by 2 goals as it finished 46-32.

Quarter 4

The final quarter saw changes to the WA bib with Georgia Less and Yasmin Hodge-England at GS coming in to showcase the depth of the Mavericks’ side but it was the long awaited debut of Temalisi Fakahokotau who stole the show. 

The final quarter was goal for goal but Mavericks came out on top with a respectable 58-44 score line.

Day 2 was to be a different affair with Mavericks in a position to overtake Pulse for the 3rd spot in the table.

Kat Ratnapala said pre match that “Every game is massive for us this year & yes it is tight at the top (of the table), but if you want to be in that top then you’ve got to be able to take out some people below you too” the Director of Netball said that to beat this Pulse team “We need to play our own game & stay true to ourselves”.

Quarter 1

Saracens Mavericks opened the game with the same starting line up as the previous day and didn’t hold back with a 3 goal lead.

Mavericks held the small lead for the first half of the quarter but with a loose ball into the hands of Pulse, the London rivals kick started their claw back and the quarter ended 13-13.

Quarter 2

Unchanged by both teams and evenly matched on speed it went goal-for-goal. 

Mavericks were trying everything in their power defensively to get ahead with Quashie, Gibson & Zaranyika’s efforts but the Pulse side were relentless. Mavericks took a 27-26 lead. 

Quarter 3

A 12 minute half time reset gave Pulse the better start, taking their rewards for the relentless defensive pressure. There were body’s taking hits and Mavericks’ infamous fast game was being detained. The connection with the centre court and Clarke was under a lot of pressure with only 10 shooting opportunities they struggled to service her. 

And whilst Gabby Marshall at WD the other end was working tirelessly to disconnect the link between Scholes, Honey and youngster Tchine, it just wasn’t enough.

Pulse sneaked ahead 34-38.

Quarter 4

Mavericks came out firing in the final quarter, throwing all that they could at the Pink & Black’s but they couldn’t get past the 2 goal threshold. 

McDonald and Tchine continued to pressure the Mavs defence and rookie Jayda Pechova won a huge rebound from Mavericks to continue their final push.

Although Mavs held on, it was the final 5mins that saw Pulse stretch the lead to 7 goals and took the game 46-53.

Ratnapala said “it’s a tough loss to be honest, we weren’t ourselves today and we’ve just reflected on that. But we’ll push on-we play Bath next and we need to build for that”.

“The first quarter we should’ve been up by 3, we had lots of opportunities where we could take more ball to goal but we didn’t take them. So yeah, a disappointing start for us”.

Saracens Mavericks will meet Team Bath for the first time this season, in the rescheduled round 10 game on 29/04/2022.

Match stats

Saracens Mavericks starting 7 VS Severn Stars: GS Britney Clarke; GA Kadeen Corbin; WA Sasha Corbin (C); C Beth Ecuyer-Dale; WD Aliyah Zaranyika; GD Jodie Gibson; GK Razia Quashie

Replacements: Chloe Essam; Temalisi Fakahokotau; Yasmin Hodge-England; Georgia Lees; Gabby Marshall

Severn Stars starting 7: GS Cat Tuivaiti; GA Paige Reed; WA Liana Leota(C); C Bethan Dyke; WD Iman Thomas; GD Dee Bolokoro; GK Lucy Herdman

Replacements: Summer Artman; Michelle Drayne; Nicole Humphreys; Katie Harris; Isabelle Eaton

Quarter scores (Saracens Mavericks first): Q1 13-8; Q2 31-19 (18-11); Q3 46-32 (15-13); Q4 58-44 (12-12)

Saracens Mavericks starting 7 VS London Pulse: GS Britney Clarke; GA Kadeen Corbin; WA Sasha Corbin (C); C Beth Ecuyer-Dale; WD Aliyah Zaranyika; GD Jodie Gibson; GK Razia Quashie

Replacements: Chloe Essam; Temalisi Fakahokotau; Yasmin Hodge-England; Georgia Lees; Gabby Marshall

London Pulse starting  7: GS Olivia Tchine; GA Sacha McDonald; WA Alicia Scholes; C Tayla Honey; WD Zara Everitt (C); GD Jas Odeogberin; GK Lindsay Keable

Replacements: Ashleigh Dekker; Ellie Rattu; Berri Neil; Kira Rothwell; Jayda Pechova

Quarter scores (Saracens Mavericks first): Q1 13-13; Q2 27-26 (14-13); Q3 34- 38 (7-12); Q4 46-53  (12-15)