VNSL Match Report Rd17: History Made – Pulse Win to Make Final 4
After a restful bye weekend, London Pulse took the short flight to Scotland, ready to face Sirens for the 2nd time this season. For Pulse this was a must win game as it would secured our place in the top 4 for finals weekend for the first time in the club’s short history.
After a strong week at training, Pulse felt confident to take on Sirens, who had also had a good run of wins. What a game it was getting ready to be!
The starting seven was announced prior to the game as:
GS – Olivia Tchine
GA- Sacha McDonald
WA- Alicia Scholes
C- Ellie Rattu
WD- Zara Everitt
Gd- Funmi Fadoju
Gk- Lindsay Keable
Tayla Honey was unavailable for selection due to illness and so Jayda Pechova joined the bench with Berri Neil, Ash Dekker, Kira Rothwell and Jasmin Odeogberin.
As the game got underway it became clear that Pulse meant business. A strong start saw pulse take a 5-0 lead. With Alicia and Ellie showing huge confidence in their shooters, Pulse pushed out the lead to 8-2. Sirens began to pull a few goals back but after some awesome team defence the end of quarter one score sat at 17-10 with Liv Tchine scoring on the buzzer and our shooters sitting on 100 % shooting stats .
Quarter two the seven remained the same. After a more even start to the second quarter Pulse led 20-13. Sirens began to pull back the score, to within 3 23-20. Pulse feel they need to make a change and they put Jas into GD. What an impact she has, as the first second she is on she gets a turnover. Pulse continue to battle it out with moments of excellence as Zara puts a third line ball in to Olivia. Pulse lead 26-22. A missed shot from sirens gives Pulse a 6 goal lead at half time. 29-23.
Heading into quarter 3 Pulse make a change and put Ashleigh Dekker into C. After it taking a few minutes to settle Pulse begin to show some strong netball and take a lead of 34-26. After a close few minutes of netball Pulse are able to pull away again. Amazing offload from Sacha into Liv and pulse just keep scoring!
Pulse change Kira Rothwell into WA and with a couple of great attacking plays Pulse stay in the lead. After a huge quarter for Pulse the score ended on 41-29 – another 100% shooting session for Liv and Sacha.
A huge last quarter for Pulse and they put Funmi Fadoju into WD. After a few minutes of play Pulse begin to make more substitutions and put Jayda into GK and Berri into GA. Neil comes on and lobs it into Liv making the score 45-34. What an impact Jayda has as she rebounds a shot and Pulse score from it. Another strong last quarter from Pulse and the end score was 57-41. What a quarter and what a game from London Pulse. After a huge performance from Jasmin Odeogberin she is announced player of the match. Awesome work Jasmin!
With that win, Pulse hits it most important milestone in it’s Four years of existence – making the Final 4 for the first time in it’s history with 3 matches still to play.
With two home games before Semi-Finals we would love to see as many of you as possible in the stands at the Copper Box Arena. Join us on the 23rd May as we face Manchester Thunder and the 28th when we face Rhinos. Book tickets at londonpulsenetball.ticketline.co.uk