Severn Stars 44 Wasps 65

SEVERN Stars felt the Wasps’ sting in a loss to fellow newcomers Wasps in the Vitality Netball Superleague last night.

They were pushed to the limit in the Midlands derby by an energetic Wasps team who dominated from the start, opening up an early lead.

Though Stars stemmed the flow in the second and fourth quarters, matching the visitors, Wasps extended their lead to take a 65-44 win in the fifth round of the league at the University of Worcester Arena.

Head coach Mo’onia Gerrard put out a changed squad which saw a reshuffle in the midcourt and a return from injury for England international Jodie Gibson.

Stars captain Laura Malcolm missed the match after sustaining an injury in the previous week’s game against Team Bath.

Even with a reshuffle in the centre court Stars missed Malcolm’s presence.

Stars looked sluggish early on in the first quarter, allowing Wasps to take a five-goal lead.

Looking to find a foothold in the game Stars’ dynamic goalkeeper Gibson made a flying intercept to prevent the Wasps shooters from extending their lead.

Great defensive work by Stars allowed shooting duo Afeisha Noel and Eleanor Cardwell to build on the Stars’ tally late in the first quarter, finishing it at 20-7.

Stars started the second quarter brightly with Cardwell scoring two in quick succession to reduce the gap.

The visitors made it hard to transition into attack but smart play by centre Iona Darroch into the shooters helped Stars find their rhythm and match Wasps in the second quarter with the half-time score 35-21.

Stars looked to build on their stronger second quarter to reduce the 14-goal deficit going into the third but Wasps caught Stars on the back foot with shooters Rachel Dunn and Natalie Haythornewaite scoring three goals early on.

Defensive duo Rebecca Oatley and Josie Janz-Dawson applied pressure to the Wasps attack which allowed Stars to stem the flow and prevent Wasps from extending their lead further, ending the third quarter 51-31.

With such a significant deficit going into the fourth quarter Stars were left with a lot to do to take home the win.

Stars changed the on-court dynamic bringing in defender Rachel Sweet and shooters Yasmin Hodge-England and Rebecca Tildesley.

The team put on a spirited display in the final quarter but the deficit was too much to overcome after a clinical, consistent display from a strong Wasps side.

Captain for the night Janz-Dawson said: “We had a good second and fourth quarter. We got blown out of the water in the first and third.

"Not having our captain Laura in the mix was hard.

“We’ve had Jodie come back in at defence and it’s now how we work Jodie into the combinations as she is a dynamic player.

"We’ve got a real mix of what we can put on court. It’s just finding the right combination to counteract the teams we are coming up against next.

“It is always hard coming off a loss like this. We can go a whole season and think what if or we can really start becoming competitive and play the brand of netball we know we can play and really reduce those errors.”

Tickets for the Stars’ next game at home to Scottish Sirens on Monday, March 27, are available at severnstars.co.uk/fixturetickets.