Mavs silence Swifts

By Stephanie Smarrelli 

The Swifts have been one of the standout teams all season, and they came out with intensity against the Mavericks.

But, the Mavs proved to be tough competitors, and unlike their Round 2 encounter, they came away with the win this time.

The Swifts’ defensive pressure was relentless early including a strong intercept from Sarah Klau but the Mavericks never backed down.

Despite struggling to move the ball effectively towards goal and falling behind by seven, they rallied with a strong mid-term surge that had them right back in the contest.

Jessie Grenvold ignited the home crowd with a key intercept which allowed the Mavs to level the score and then steal the lead before the first break.

 
The match up between Grenvold and Grace Nweke was scintillating with a couple of big wins starting the second quarter for the Mavs. 

Swift Helen Housby made way for Sophie Fawns giving the Mavericks defence a new challenge but they quickly adapted.  

Trading goals from end to end, every moment was critical.

An injury time was called for Kim Brown giving both sides a moment to breathe before the intensity lifted once again.  

Brown returned to the court and the Mavs defensive unit continued to disrupt making it difficult for the Swifts to punch through in attack. 

Both teams held a perfect gain to goal ratio heading into halftime proving how tight the contest had become. 

The Mavs carried a three-goal lead into the main break putting pressure on the Swifts to bounce back.

The third quarter erupted with the same intensity as the second, with both teams exchanging goals in a thrilling back-and-forth battle. 

Shimona Jok was a commanding presence in the Mavs attack with Sasha Glasgow doing a wealth of work to draw Klau away from the goal circle creating space for her teammate.  

 
While down the other end of the court, Nweke and Housby continued to do what they do best but a couple of costly errors kept the Mavs in control. 
 
Swifts co-captain Paige Hadley was calm under pressure doing what she could to turn momentum around but the Mavs' dominance was undeniable.

Molly Jovic was full of energy through the midcourt and tallied 12 goal assists and 14 feeds during the third term alone. 

With the last time the two sides met in the back of their minds the Mavs’ determination to win continued to push them ahead.

Eleven goals up, all eyes were on the Mavs to see if they could close it out.

And close it out they did surging home despite the Swifts’ best efforts.

Housby and Fawns turned it on in the Power Five slotting Super Shots to narrow the margin.

Powerful defensive efforts from Brown and Liv Lewis sealed the win in the match's final minutes. 

Jovic set the tone throughout the match for the Mavs and was rewarded as the match MVP.

After dominating top spot all season, the loss now puts the Swifts into second on the ladder with the side set to come up against the Sunshine Coast Lightning next week.

While the Mavs will face the Thunderbirds next week with confidence having back-to-back wins in their pockets.

Speaking after the match Mavericks head coach Tracey Neville was thrilled with the win.

"We could have let this season die," Neville said.

"But we've been going away, working hard and challenging.

"To get back-to-back wins is the first time we've done that as a club and to achieve a win against one of the top three teams is a real success.

"Milestones really generate belief going forward and confidence is something that we have to engage in and celebrate." 

While Swifts head coach Briony Akle wasn't too concerned by the loss with the Swifts still sitting in the top two.

"I back these guys every day of the week," Akle said.

"There's not a perfect competition in any high performance sport.

"We will weather this storm and we'll come out the other end."