Aussies secure series victory

Australia secured the series with a 46-40 win over New Zealand in front of a 7,000 strong crowd at the Westpac Centre in Christchurch this afternoon.

After levelling the series on Saturday in Auckland, the Silver Ferns were looking to continue to apply the strong defensive pressure from the first two matches but it was the strong Australian midcourt again proved the difference just as it had done in the first match.

It was the Australians who jumped out to a six goal lead courtesy of Sharelle McMahon as Susan Pratley again struggled to make the most of her opportunities at goal attack. The Silver Ferns then hit back as Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia scored several late goals to put their team into lead heading into the second quarter but a large penalty count let them down to see the scores locked at 20-20 at the main break.

The Silver Ferns struggled to gain any sort of momentum during the second half as the strong Australian defensive combination of Mo’onia Gerrard and captain Liz Ellis restricted the effectiveness of Tutaia as van Dyk was forced to shoulder much of the shooting load.

Pratley wasn’t benched as Australian coach Norma Plummer showed faith in the young goaler and it proved to be an effective move as she combined well with McMahon during the second half.

McMahon shot 21 goals from 24 attempts at 88% accuracy in what was definitely an improvement on her performance in the second match on Saturday and Pratley (14/20 at 70%) was forced to play second fiddle in the goaling department but will draw some confidence from the fact that she started in two of the three matches played.

Van Dyk (23/25 at 92%) was the main target for the Silver Ferns as Maria Tutaia (7/7 at 100%) and Tania Dalton (3/3 at 100%) were both given limited court time by coach Ruth Aitken.

Natalie von Bertouch received the Player of the Match award for her superb performance at centre and McMahon was judged Player of the Series after consistently shooting at over 80% accuracy in all three matches during the series.

Next for the Australian players is a two month break before another training camp at the AIS in Canberra.

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