Round 7 VNSL Match Report: Pulse Calms the Storm

Starting 7 today Liv, Sacha, Ash, Ellie, Zara, Funmi, Lindsay

Surrey Storm took the opening C pass and quickly turned over London Pulse’s C pass to start the game. Funmi Fadoju, on the other hand, put pressure on Proscovia Peace’s shot and grabbed the rebound. London Pulse put up a lot of defensive pressure, but they couldn’t turn it into a goal, as Surrey Storm went up 2-0 in the opening three minutes.

After 5 minutes, Oliva scores a London Pulse verse goal, bringing the score to 3-1. The first quarter was extremely defensive, but it seemed like Surrey Storm were getting the best of London Pulse, as the Storm led 8-3. Lindsay Keable and Funmi Fadoju put on a pile of pressure getting a critical tip from 6’4 Proscovia Peace.

The attack were still trying to settle into this attacking combo as another ball was forced into Tchine, who was unable to get her hands on it. Tchine and Dekker’s connection started to improve in the final few minutes. Dekker’s confidence in threading the needle to Olivia after she double-dogded the GK was incredible. 12-11 to Pulse in Q1

 

Q2

London Pulse were officially ready this second quarter. Funmi, doing Funmi things, came up with the early intercept for Pulse, which allowed Tchine to slot another one. 15-12 to Pulse.

Storm’s defence were unable to stop the Pulse attack, and they took advantage of every chance with two hands. 19-16. Fadoju and Keable were successfully applying significant pressure to Storm. Moving a 6’4 GS out of the circle is one thing, but causing a held ball is another. WOW. There was 6 minutes left in this quarter, and pulse had all of the momentum. A  swift 3 seconds prevented Pulse from expanding the gap to 5, but this had no effect on the team. TCHINE has a hot hand. 28-24 to Pulse in Q2

Q3

Tayla Honey was moved to C and Alicia Scholes to WA in this quarter, and they immediately had an impact on the game by assisting Pulse with a three-goal run at the opening.

Sacha McDonald started the quarter strongly scoring three of the four goals in the first few minutes. Again, Fadoju showed amazing hustle as she got a wonderful tip from Proscovia peace and chased down the ball before passing it to Everitt.  Keable applied tremendous defensive pressure as she came around the back of the storm GS and distributed the ball to her attackers. In the third quarter, pulse defended tenaciously, ending 41-35.

Q4

A tremendous final quarter for London Pulse, as Ashleigh Dekker returned to WA. She was critical today in giving safe passes to Tchine. To begin the third quarter, there was a great rebound by the Pulse defence, which they were able to capitalise on, however as the ball was going down court, Surrey Storm were forced to make a change due to an injury to Emma Magee, who has been such a vital player for Storm this game. We hope Emma is well and wish her a fast recovery. Frankie Wells enters the heated close game prepared to fight.

The Pulse attack didn’t let the stoppage of time phase them, with a triple play between McDonald and Tchine. They have such a great connection. Jasmin Odeogberin entered the game at GD with Fadoju moving to GK. Quickly wreaking havoc, this defensive combo of Jas and Funmi caused a held ball by Surrey storm. 9 goal difference

Surrey Storm increased their pressure and caused issues for this Pulse squad at the end of the final quarter, although this had little effect on players. Final score 56 – 50 to Pulse

PoM Olivia Tchine

 

Next up we face Sirens on Monday at 7PM – looking to make it 5 home wins from 5