LaLaLand, September 12th/13th

5th out of 13!!  Go United!!

Thanks to everyone for coming up even if it was for one day. .  A Big Thank You to Sam and Kate for hanging in there for having to do all of the shooting after having 2 days of Staples Center training and the big event!

AND a thank you to Sharon for umpiring all weekend and stepping up for games you werent scheduled to do.  Even though I know your heart was with us on court, and not sure how you managed to have the willpower not to grab a bib??

Coach’s report:
The weekend of netball was a long one, and despite lost toenails, indecent scratches and a mighty impressive bruised forearm, San Diego posted a respectable 5th place. We actually lost more matches than we won, but thanks to our habit of strong performances against the best teams, we always came away with points if not the win. Losing by only a couple of goals to Stars, Riptide and  Crusaders 1, San Diego really pushed teams with far greater experience all the way. On Saturday Tanya was on her best disruptive form, hoovering up intercepts and rebounds all day, her defensive duties were assumed by Alison on Sunday who kept up the pace and motivation for the team. Naomi did a great job in defense, defying height restrictions time and again and always looking to kickstart our attacks. Player of the weekend though has to be Kelly – never stopped running, and gave simply the best guide to defensive ‘art’ when playing the guys from New York!
Thanks everyone, was a lot of fun, bring on San Fran!

Riptide – L
Tidal – L
Longboards – W
Stars – L
Comets – W
Phoenix – W
Crusaders 1 – L
Crusaders 2 – L
Seattle – W
Cowgirls – W
Navigators – L
MINC – L

Fun in the Sun May 2009

A great weekend was had by all – well done everyone for turning up, helping out and making it a success, both in terms of a fun day of netball and as a monetary return for the club!

Our Fun in the Sun tournament on Saturday was the biggest event we’ve hosted as a club, with 8 teams participating – 3 from the Waves (Riptide, Tidal and Youth), 2 of our own (Whales and Dolphins), Phoenix (Heat), Thousand Oaks (Comets) and San Fransisco (Stars).  There was a lot of organization needed right up to the last minute but everything went off without a hitch on the day.  A massive thank you to everyone for helping out by just taking part but especially to Barbara for organizing the donated goods for the snack stand and  Lisa for coordinating the raffle items – our 2 big money-makers for the year.  Thanks also to Kate for coordinating the schedule, which  worked smoothly and to Heather and Tanya for bringing. all the equipment.

We easily met one of our year’s goals this weekend – to field 2 teams for a tournament.  Named by our coach, Shamu, (Kate) the Dolphins were in pool Y and Whales in pool G.  The Dolphins had 2 great wins against Heat and Waves Youth and played valiantly against Riptide in their final game of Round 1, to finish second in  the yellow pool.  Well done Tanya for picking off all those loose balls in defense.  The Whales did really well, beating all the teams in their pool (Stars, Comets and Tidal)  to finish top, with amazing shooting from Keren, Sam and Kate.  However this meant that we were fielding both our teams against each other in the second round.   A shame, as we hoped to face each other in the final.  As it turned out, Whales won, which meant that United was heading for that said final.  The Dolphins then played the Stars for 3rd and 4th place – not an easy task.  The Dolphins battled it out but, unfortunately, the Stars prevailed.  However, I think that Captain Livy had a great consolation prize for her team in her cooler!

The Stars then played Riptide for a spot against the Whales in the last game.  Thank you to Keren and Alison for umpiring that difficult match, which Riptide won in the end.

In the final game against them,  the play was quite even to a point.  We were a competitive match for the Waves first team and should have won but they had the edge, forcing us to make some errors, thereby losing the game 10-8.  It was close and we gave it our best shot.  Good try ladies!

Another big thanks to Sam for organizing our Saturday night social at Jack’s, La Jolla.  The Stars and Heat came along and it was a wonderful way to relax and mingle after a long day of exercise.  Sam, you are our social guru!

Sunday was a fun day for all who showed up.  Thanks to the Stars, Heat (even Ava with her injured foot) and to the San Diego boys who came to play.  We played 4 full quarters, swapping players and mixing the squads for an enjoyable extension to the “Fun in the Sun” tournament ethos.  Coffee and croissants certainly perked up the players!

Thanks again to all of you who played – Alison, Barbara, Burnadette, Cath, Celia, Heather, Kelly, Keren, Lisa, Livy, Kate D. Kate E., Naomi,  Rachel, Sam, , Tanya and Zoe.  And also to the umpires – Kate, Alison and Keren.   A final congratulations to our MVPs – Naomi of the Dolphins and Sam of the Whales.  You certainly both deserve the title.

It was wonderful to have so many United players out this weekend.  There were many comments made as to the growth of our club and our sportsman-like conduct.  Way to go girls!

Sharon

A Successful Day for United! April 5, 2009

Today was a good day for the club, beating first the Comets 28-16 and then Tidal 28-27. It was a warm day to play, especially 2 hour long games back-to-back but everyone stepped up to the challenge and we prevailed.

The team for today consisted of Anthea, Barbara, Burnadette, Kate, Lisa, Livy, Rachel, Sam, Sharon and Zoe. Ants, Burnie, Barbara and Rachel did a great job in defense and Lisa, Livy, Sam and Zoe were our attack. Thanks to Burnie, Lisa, and Zoe for stepping up to take the Centre position today too.

The Comets game was quite close in the first 2 quarters, with us being ahead by only 2 goals after each break. Barbara did a great job as WD, keeping on her player the whole time and making herself free for the pass when the defense was bringing the ball down the court. We settled down in the 3rd quarter, gradually getting use to playing together and starting to think a bit more about our passing. During the final quarter things came together, the play slowed down and we were able to make every pass count. Great passes into the circle from Zoe and Lisa and nice shooting from Liv and Sam brought us home.

Tidal have improved their game tremendously, with new players and a  higher level of fitness. We were down by 5 goals after the first quarter, not quite finding our rhythm with a much faster paced game. However, the 2nd quarter saw us pull back and at the end of the 3rd quarter we were 2 goals ahead. By then we were getting a bit tired but, luckily for us, so were the Waves girls-which showed our determination as they had a large team and interchanged their players a lot. We kept the edge to the end to win by 1 goal. Anthea played doggedly, keeping really tight on the GA through the w! hole game and making them work hard to get into the circle. Burnadette kept going and made some great interceptions as centre and Rachel kept the pressure on with the constant stream of interchanging WAs (each with fresh legs). Again, great work by the attacking players with Sam and Lisa’s shooting skills making it count.

A big thanks to Kate for being there for us. It makes such a huge difference and we all appreciate your comments (even the harsh ones)!

See you all at training Tuesday

From Kate:
It was great to come and watch / umpire the girls today – there was lots to be really pleased with, even if the final 10 mins against Tidal really tested me to keep my mouth clamped shut! For the Players of the matches: In the first game against the comets , Lisa was really impressive, no loose ball ever gets past her, and she brought a lot of energy and drive to the attack – a great debut! Against Tidal Sharon was at her limpet best – the shooters (regardless of their height advantage could not find space, and the feeders lost all confidence to throw the ball anywhere near her. Well played girls, I was proud of you.

LaLaLand Tournament, Carson, LA November 14th-16th, 2008

Hi Everyone,

We never sent out an official thanks to all the girls that came up for the epic netball weekend in Carson for LA LA Land. Unfortunately this won’t be a detailed match report like Sharon does because I’m doing it but I’ll do my best to remember!

Louisa, Karen GP and I were up there on Friday night for the PCNL rep team match which started with some very tight official uniforms  and the Beep test BEFORE the match! That was a rude awakening – this team really is no joke and it was a pleasure to play with such talented girls at such a high level. Very humbling indeed! The PCNL team lost on Friday night to the Under 23 Alberta team but won both games on Sat and Sun against Seattle and the rematch against Alberta, which was a tasty revenge against the young spring chickens.

United had a rough start on Saturday getting to know each other on court having never played together before. Once we sorted that all out we were gellin’ like Magellan and really pulled through at the end there. I think the game against the Stars really proved that! Losing by 3 against a team which is pretty much 90% PCNL rep team members was pretty awesome.

The shalacking against Alberta was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be and we have Sharon and Celia to thank for that – the fresh legs were absolutely essential. Thanks so much Sharon and Celia for coming up on Sunday to rescue us. We were all sore and limping old ladies (some of us with “broken femurs”) and having you there to help out in Centre and Shooter when we lost our shooters and had to reshuffle was awesome. It was a much closer match than the score represented and I think we can all agree that we felt pretty good at the end of that one – considering they were all UNDER 23!

Claire and Tanya – Thank you especially to both of you for playing 6 full games as our shooters on the Saturday! It only occurred to me at the end of the day that you guys were kind of stuck there because our need to rotate the center court positions (just way too much netball!) and our lack of other options for shooters.

Rach and Barb – Rock solid in defense as always. Barb your fitness keeps astounding me. Your always there putting pressure on every ball and sticking to your player like glue! So much so that the “dangerous play” warning for defending with your boozies was instigated! haha Rach when we put you in WD that was definitely your calling. You did a great job intercepting and getting lots of tips on passes and pressuring the pass. Awesome work.

Emma and Faye it was an absolute pleasure playing with you both. You’re such lovely girls and we’re really looking forward to the friendly matches we can play now that you guys have great numbers in Phoenix. We should definitely set something up. Oh and Faye, I really do think Centre might be your calling especially when I’m on your team….hehe

Karen GP – Thanks so much for being a trooper and playing through the ash and bad air quality! I know it was getting really tough for you by the end of the tournament but we couldn’t have survived without you (literally! I think we would have died) so we really appreciate you coming out on both days.

Louisa – The same goes for you. It was great to be able to rotate out our players and have such solid players to put in as our subs. As usual you did a great job and it was nice to see a friendly face on the court during the PCNL matches.

Sharon, Karen GP and Karen W (please pass on to Karen W) – A massive thank you for umpiring in between the multitude of matches while the rest of us got to relax. We really appreciate it and understand that it’s a pain in the ass being out there in the sun right after a match and sometimes needing to play again right after you umpire so thank you for sucking it up for us and representing us so well. Karen W thanks so much for your help in taking some of our umpiring slots. It really helped out the girls and made the day much more manageable for us. We’re glad we could offer you that game to at the very end!

All in all it was a great weekend. We only came away with 2 wins but had some close matches and some contested competition once we gelled together. Everyone chipped in with the scoring and it was great getting to know you all a little better. We extend an open invitation to the Phoenix and Comets girls to come play with us whenever you can’t make the numbers! Looking forward to more tourneys and hope to see you all at the International Day in January.

Happy holidays!

Sam
Original Message Emailed 12/14/08