Guernsey’s representative seniors then lost by the narrowest margin in their second match of a double-header at East Sussex Mavericks, their first taste of regional action since lockdown derailed their South Division Three campaign in March 2020.
Now competing a tier below in the development-driven CD Phoenix Regional League, they came back with a bang to triumph 50-45 on Saturday, followed by a 39-38 loss to an augmented team on Sunday.
Panthers bagged seven league points from this double-header at the Turing School – five for a win and two for the tight loss – which was an outcome that pleased Guernsey director of netball Sally Carns.
‘We know that we needed to put out a strong start to the league,’ she said.
‘We wanted to go, “We’re here, we are back in the league” and the girls certainly did that over the weekend.’
Furthermore, Panthers made good use of their 10-strong roster throughout.
The head coach and development officer praised their senior leadership together with the promising youngsters who made up the bulk of the squad, including U19s Taylor Callanan and McKenzie Rich, who each earned a player-of the-match nomination.
Panthers made the superior start on the Saturday, winning the first quarter 11-8 then extending their lead to 28-18 at half-time.
However, the Mavericks were not deterred, closing the gap to nine goals at three-quarter time before seeing out the game stronger.
Regardless, Panthers came away triumphant, aided considerably by the outstanding work of GS Callanan and her successful shooting from all around the circle.
‘We really stuck to our process goals, which gave us the win,’ Carns said.
Mavericks came back the next day with a fuller squad and yet still could not keep pace with Panthers in the first quarter.
The Sarnians won quarter one 12-8, though not without hiccup, as they lost experienced mid-courter Becky Chamberlain to a calf injury. U19 Mariella Groulef stepped up her own mid-court duties to help lessen the blow during the match.
But they were outscored 10-7 and 10-8 in the following periods to enter the final quarter just behind.
That proved decisive. Panthers had done well to make it 38-all with under 30sec. on the clock, but a Mavericks winner in the dying moments denied them what would have been three league points for a draw.
Impact player Rich’s hard work turning over the ball in defence earned her POM in this battling loss.
‘It was just a great start to the campaign,’ Carns added.
‘Sunday, the opposition had their full squad.
‘Both games were well-contested. It could have gone either way on the Sunday.
‘I was arguably as proud on Sunday as I was on Saturday... just a really positive weekend and a great start to the league.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.