Words by: Holly Evans
Sheffield Hallam’s netball 3rd side narrowly edged out Northumbria University 5th side 32-31 in a very close game at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield.
Hallam had the better start out of the two sides and scored quickly to build themselves a gap that they knew would be beneficial to them later on in the match. The shooting of Hallam was clinical, with only the defence letting them down to allow Northumbria to score from sloppy mistakes.
There appeared to be a loss of confidence from Hallam at the beginning of the second quarter and Northumbria began to get themselves thoroughly back into the game. Although there attack was once again excellent, Hallam would need to tighten up their defence quickly if they were going to maintain their slender lead of just five points.
With the score at 20-15 at the beginning on the penultimate quarter, Hallam needed to get their act together before Northumbria got any closer to them. As Hallam began to crack through the away side’s defence, they managed to build an excellent ten point lead going into the final quarter.
That 10 point gap got the scores to 30-20 but it was Northumbria that had the better play in the final quarter as they pressured Hallam more and more. Northumbria appeared to be the only team that were threatening their opposition and as they got themselves to within two points of Hallam’s total, the home side knew it was going to be a tense finale.
Hallam managed to edge out their opponents with the slightest of gaps where they could have easily been beaten.
This win leaves them top of the BUCS Northern 7B table going into the Christmas break with Durham 4th sitting very closely behind them.
