THE Cats did it tough against West on the courts on Saturday, but there were some great results to finish up the day.

The B Grade girls notched-up their fourth win of the season to tie-up the top end of the B Grade ladder, with just one game separating first and fourth place.

In the juniors, the 13 & Under B side turned the tables on the A game with a great win, 22 to seven, locking themselves clear in second place on the premiership ladder.

From the scribes …

B Grade

HOPING to secure their fourth win of the season, the B Grade girls jumped on the court and got to work.

Starting in the same positions as they finished in last week’s nail biter, which resulted in a one goal win, both ends took no time to settle in, which was reflected on the scoreboard.

Eilidh Murray (GS) and Ebony Mutch (GA) have gelled very well together, with Murray consistently holding space to her advantage and Mutch driving and moving around the ring, often providing our feeders Katie Gill-Killey (WA) and Kerri Harvey (C) with two options, every time they have the ball on the ring.

Gill-Killey and Harvey are also teaming well, being patient and using each other rather than forcing the ball into our goalies if they aren’t set.

Defensively Tammy Knight (GK) and Annalee McKinnon (GD) were in every contest, Kinight holding her player high and McKinnon playing tight defence on her opponent, both girls getting as many rebounds as each other until Tammy went down with a calf injury, which saw Emma Grigg come into the defensive line-up.

Grigg wasted no time, immediately impacting the game with her quick defensive reflexes and ability to get her hands on the ball, whether it be through intercepts or rebounds.

Dakota Crawford has been playing the role of wing defence this year.

Most netballers will know that it’s often a selfless and hard-grinding position, where you have to work for every single ball you get.

Crawford has made it her mission to impact every game, chasing up any loose balls and switching into attack mode every time our defenders turn the ball over.

At quarter time the Cats had worked themselves into a nice little four-goal advantage, 10 to six.

The team continued to build momentum and the lead for the Cats blew out to 12 by half time (24 to 12).

This allowed for a few positional switch ups to try some new combinations - Crawford moved into the centre and Harvey went to wing attack.

The first few minutes of the third term was a bit frantic while the new combinations in the attacking end settled, but once they did, the ball started the move more fluently down the court and into the ring.

West outscored the Cats by one in the third term, but ultimately the lead created by the Cats in the second quarter was just too much for the Gambians to chase.

Final score Casterton-Sandford 42 defeated West Gambier 26.

11 & Under

WITH close to a full team of 13 players, with only Isabella Luers out injured, the girls came into the game ready to take on the six quarters head-on.

The first two quarters saw the girls chasing the ball and doing some great defensive play, Nicola Boyd getting her hands up to a lot of balls over the court, Cleo Longhurst moving well and opening up the court in C and getting that ball into our shooters.

Skye Kurzman (GA) and Hannah Davis moved really well in the ring and made the most of every shooting opportunity.

The third and fourth quarter saw Bridie Dorahy, Bailey Green and Nicola Boyd working really hard for the ball.

The girls were getting their hands up over every ball, chasing those loose balls where they could to make the most of every opportunity.

Leading into the last two quarters, the girls were focused keeping up their strong leads and making the most of each turnover and making great scoring opportunities.

The girls fought back hard but did not come away with a win in the end – Casterton Sandford, nine, to West, 17.