• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Tim Doutré

9th March 2010 11:05:38 AM

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VICTORIA University/Western Lightning did not get the ideal start it was looking for in its opening Championship clash for the season, going down to North East Blaze by 11 goals.

The new look Lightning side, with a host of debutants in the blue, white and red, went down to the Blaze 63-52.

The Lightning gave a four-goal lead to the Blaze after not capitalising on an intercept from the opening centre pass.

“Not the start we were after,” Lightning coach Joy Grubb said. “We beat them by the same margin in the pre-season that they beat us by.

“I don’t think we came to play. There was an incident on the West Gate bridge which held up some of our players by 20 minutes. They arrived late and they were talking about it and thinking about it I don’t think we had our minds on exactly what we needed to do.”

The Blaze were consistent, scoring 17 goals in each of the opening three quarters with the Lightning consistently behind scoring 13, 14 and 11 consecutively. The 11-goal third term was where the Blaze left them behind according to Grubb.

“Don’t take anything away from the North East Blaze they dictated terms from the very first pass. It was just one of those nights where nothing worked for us. North East Blaze became extremely confident, all their efforts turned to gold and all ours turned to bronze.”

In the final term the Lightning outscored the Blaze 14-12 but it was too late to mount a comeback.

Up forward Lightning goal shooter Sophie O’Shea nailed 25 from 31 shots, while Olivia Cameron at goal attack had 22 from 28.

Julia Knott was subbed on in the second half taking her position in goal shooter and in the final term goal attack as Grubb looked to rest O’Shea and Cameron in the third and final terms respectively.

Knott shot well at 84 per cent (16 goals from 19 shots) but it was not enough to stop the Blaze.

Grubb said her side would face some difficulties thanks to the 11-goal margin.

“When you lose the first game of the season against a team you thought you could beat and get beat by a good percentage it hurts your percentage for the rest of the year which makes it hard.”

The Lightning will look to atone tomorrow night at the State Netball Centre when they take on Boroondara Genesis, which was thrashed in its opening encounter by 17 goals last week.

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