“IT’s full steam ahead for us now.”
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Orange open netball coach Petrina Allen said her troops won’t take the foot off the gas after two blockbuster days at the Netball NSW Open State Championships, at Campbelltown and Camden.
After a first up loss to Gosford (22-20) on day one Orange ran rampant, winning its next 13 games consecutively to take first spot going into the final day on Monday.
Orange beat Charlestown (16-15), Newcastle (22-9), Camden and District (14-12), Illawarra (26-13), Penrith (21-12), Nambucca Valley (23-14), Blue Mountains (31-10), Australian Army (31-13), Cessnock (37-10) and Sapphire Coast (20-16) on Saturday, before overcoming Baulkham Hills (27-19), Wyong (24-15) and Scone (21-17) yesterday.
Orange sits three points ahead of Gosford, who have lost just two games, and are hot favourites to win the state title and retain the Pat Weston OAM Country Champions cup, awarded to the highest placed country side.
“We won’t get too far ahead of ourselves, but there’s no reason we can’t go on and win it from here,” Allen said.
“We can’t afford to drop any games but we’ve been playing brilliant netball.”
Orange takes on Maitland this morning, before the play-offs begin.
The championship division will be split down the middle, with the top eight and bottom eight contesting their own respective play-offs.
Allen said Gosford will be Orange’s biggest threat but with teams like Baulkham Hills and Charlestown set to qualify in the top eight her team can’t afford to relax against anyone.
“Gosford are a good side, but they didn’t win that game, we lost it,” she said.
“They’re a threat, all the sides are, but it was a slow start on our behalf and the girls picked themselves up straight away, I can’t fault our campaign so far.