These teams won their respective play-off matches at Les Varendes on Tuesday night, meaning that the final on Sunday 3 May will be a repeat of the 2022-23 showdown where ‘underdogs’ Strike secured a milestone victory.
But Rezzers Green are the main league champions and so will not be going down easily.
Their Tuesday night play-off against in-form B team Rezzers Black was worthy of being a final in itself as it went to overtime just like the showpiece game of last season.
They ultimately edged it 65-63 after capitalising on a couple of important rebounds from missed Blacks shots deep into the five-minute overtime.
‘We always bring the drama,’ Rezzers Green captain Clare Henry said after having to fight through the match without influential players Verona Tomlin, Anna Sauvarin and Naomi Szmierek.
‘I’m really happy to get the win. We are missing Verona [who is injured], Anna as she’s on holiday and Naomi as she’s ill, so we had to pull up Taylor [Callanan], who played really well.’
Player-of-the-match Henry joined forces with young step-up Callanan in the shooting circle as they established a 17-11 lead in the first quarter, which featured an extra break due to water on the court.
However, the youthful B team – for whom C Savannah Goddard and GA Sophie Jehan were the eventual POMs – bounced back.
Their efforts were topped off by the impressive work of Jehan and GS Poppy Bisson in the shooting circle as they hit half-time having closed the gap right down to 31-30.
Greens edged ahead again to lead by two after the third quarter, but made several mistakes in what would have been the closing stages, from which their rivals capitalised to equalise in the nick of time.
Regular time ended on 59 points apiece and so came a bout of overtime, where the two sides went goal-for-goal until Blacks suffered a small lapse in their otherwise spotless shooting.
That enabled circle defenders Erin Sullivan and Gemma Batiste to pick up rebounds for their teammates to convert smoothly.
‘It was neck-and-neck until basically the last minute,’ Henry added.
‘We just handled the pressure really well – I’m really pleased with the squad.’
Lightning Strike got embroiled in a great battle of their own against SNC Blaze A, which they ultimately won 58-50.
Both sides faced significant absences through the court but benefited from helpful step-ups, notably including Blaze POM Molly Bougourd at GD.
League runners-up Lightning capitalised on early turnovers to get a healthy cushion in the opening minutes, which they carried over to a 19-13 score at quarter-time.
Blaze rallied in the second quarter and their converted GS Ella Staples provided particularly welcome firepower, dominating the circle against the Lightning defence’s best efforts. GK Roxanne Wylie also capitalised on her height to impress on the other end.
The physicality of the game was starting to take its toll, but WA Nena Ellis proved an unfortunate victim of that when she went down injured.
She was slowly escorted off court, another blow for Blaze’s hopes, though there were a few rays of optimism now that they were just 31-27 down at half-time.
Blaze continued to close them down in quarter three and so entered the final stanza with a deficit of just three.
Lightning pulled no stops on defence over the closing stages, including POM Kerys Chamberlain bringing energy and essential turnovers while impact player Anna Fazakerley’s height helped combat Staples in the circle.
Topped off by accurate shooting, they extended their advantage, but it was never easy work for Donna Brehaut’s side.
‘It was one of our hardest games of the season,’ Brehaut admitted.
‘We got to a really good start, which helped set us up for the match.
‘We closed the game out really well at the end. The start and finish really helped us, but Blaze pushed us all the way.
‘We had to work for everything on court.’
All eyes are now on finals day and while this is an annual occurrence for Rezzers Green, Lightning’s A team will be playing on the Beau Sejour show court for the first time in three years.
‘We relish the opportunity to play on the show court,’ Brehaut added. ‘Really excited about that.’
