T&T senior national netball goal-shooter Kalifa Mc Collin shot 31 goals from 34 attempts for the second straight match, but it was not enough to stop her Celtic Dragons from a 55-50 loss to Saracens Mavericks in the Vitality England Netball Super League at Ricoh Arena, Coventry,England, yesterday.
Mavericks got off to a good start and led 15-10 at the end of the first quarter which they extended by one to 31-25 after a 16-15 second quarter scoreline.
Mc Collin and her team-mates came out firing in the third period and won the quarter 14-11 to pull withing three goals of their opponents, at 39-42.
However, Mavericks managed to keep its slim lead until the final whistle after taking the quarter 13-11 for a 55-50 victory, their ninth in 15 matches while Dragons dropped to 5-10 on the ten-team table in eighth spot..
Overall, Mc Collin who is expected to be a key member of the national women’s team for the upcoming Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England has so far converted 321 goals from 355 attempts on the season.
The T&T standout will have little time to rest as she and her Dragons team-mates return to the same venue today for a clash with table leaders Wasps Netball 12-3) before completing the regular season versus Surrey Storm (April 27), and Loughborough Lightning on May 4 to end the regular-season.
National women’s netball goal-shooter Samantha Wallace and her New South Wales Swifts continued their build-up to the opening round of the Suncorp Super Netball League season, with a narrow 57-56 pre-season win over Giants Netball at Quay Centre, Sydney Olympic Park in Australia, yesterday.
It was the second straight win for the Swifts who were coming off a 59-44 triumph against Adelaide Thunder at the same venue earlier this month and their fifth, in six pre-season matches overall. Wallace scored 49 goals from 54 attempts in the thrilling win.
Last month, the 25-year-old Wallace, a third-year player with the Swifts’, helped her club to the fifth spot in the Team Girls Cup, a pre-season competition involving all eight Super Netball League clubs after a slim 42-41 triumph against Queensland Firebirds in the playoffs.
The win completed a decent outing for the Swifts who also had two wins and one defeat in their four-team round-robin pool, but was edged out of the final on points percentage difference by Giants Netball and Collingwood Magpies, after all, three clubs, ended with 2-1 records in Pool B.
The Suncorp Super Netball season jumps off on Saturday with Melbourne Vixens up against Queensland Firebirds, and Collingwood Magpies versus Sunshine Coast Lightning, both at Melbourne Arena, Melbourne.
A day later, Wallace and the Swifts travel to Qudos Bank Arena to meet Giants Netball, while Adelaide Thunderbirds host West Coast Fever.