Surrey Storm secured their second win of the season on Saturday evening with a 58-48 win over Manchester Thunder at Super 10.
The annual event, held at the Genting Arena in Birmingham, saw last year’s finalists go head-to-head once again with the ‘hosts’ running out 10 goal winners thanks to a cruising final quarter performance.
Coach Hoffman made just one change to her starting 7 compared to the opening weekend win over Severn Stars, with Scarlett Williams coming at WD in place of Beth Sutherland. The defensive change didn’t seem to phase Storm though, with Lorraine Kowalewska making some key early interceptions to hand her side the lead. Thunder returned to good form late on in the quarter though, and led 12-15 at the first break.
Storm made a strong start to the 2nd quarter and quickly leveled the scores back to 15-all, before Katy Holland’s stop on Mvula forced Thunder to lose possession and fall 2 goals behind at 20-18. The quarter went goal-for-goal for a long period, before Storm broke away to lead 30-26 at half time.
Naida Hutchinson arrived on court back from injury to make her Storm debut in Q3 at GK, pushing Holland forward to GD. A few missed chances allowed Manchester to tie the game once again at 32-all before leading by a single goal 35-36. Mikki Austin moved to WD to add some more pressured in the defensive third which, alongside the dominance held by Hutchinson, allowed Storm to lead by 2 (41-39) heading into the final quarter.
Surrey made yet another big start to the period and were almost immediately 5 goals up. Multiple turnovers followed from that point with Sutherland (back on at WD) and Hutchinson making some key interceptions for Katie Harris and Megan Craig to comfortable finish off. Thunder were down and out with a few minutes left on the clock, allowing Storm to make it two out of two so far and secure their first win at the Genting Arena.
Storm are back in action this Saturday with a trip to Team Northumbria in round 3 for a 6pm centre-pass, where they will be looking to maintain their 100% record heading into Netball London Live in round 4 on Saturday 11th March.
Tickets for the big game in the capital are on sale now at www.netballlondonlive.com.
Player of the Match: Georgia Lees
Listen to Scarlett Williams talk to Andy Lag Media post-game:
Storm starting 7:
GK – Kowalewska
GD – Holland
WD – Williams
C – Austin
WA – Lees
GA – Harris
GS – Craig
Changes for Storm: Parsons to C (Q2), Hutchinson to GK, Holland to GD, Austin to WD (all Q3), Sutherland to WD (Q4)
Thunder starting 7:
GK – Almond
GD – Dovey
WD – Marshall
C – Leota
WA – Hoult
GA – Turner
GS – Mvula
All other stats TBC
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