Vigor Netball Super League semi-finals: London Pulse vs Surrey Storm (6.30 pm), Loughborough Lightning vs Manchester Thunder (8pm); see both semi-finals reside on Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports’ YouTube channel on Friday, June 9
By Holly Hanson
Last Upgraded: 08/06/23 12:10 pm
Surrey Storm’s Mikki Austin is enjoying being back in the Netball Super League semi-finals (Picture: Ben Lumby)
After 20 rounds, the Vigor Netball Super League has actually reached the semi-final phase – and for one club in specific it provides an opportunity to recover a few of their previous magnificence.
The last 4 sees table-toppers London Pulse welcome Surrey Storm to their house arena at the Copper Box, and ruling champs Manchester Thunder take a trip down to Leicestershire to handle Loughborough Lightning.
Storm have actually reached this phase for the very first time given that 2016. That year ended with them winning the Grand Final for the 2nd time in a row, having actually reached 4 other finals prior to that, and director of netball Mikki Austin confesses rising themselves back into title contention has actually taken them by surprise.
Austin informed Sky Sports: “I’m unsure any of it’s actually going to settle in up until some point in the summer season when I’m sitting with my household going, ‘can you think we did that?’ It has actually been a long period of time coming.”
” We can change rights and wrongs within our own group and concentrate on what we need to be much better at, so we can ideally come out the best side of an outcome for a semi.”
For Pulse, this marks just their 2nd semi-final look after ending up in the leading 4 in the table for the very first time in 2022. On that celebration, they failed to Loughborough and now deal with 3 remarkably knowledgeable sides with previous league titles under their belts.
Nevertheless, they have actually just been beaten two times in the routine season – in Round 4 versus Manchester Thunder, decreasing 58-51, and in Round 20 versus Saracens Mavericks where they lost 52-46.
London Pulse have actually made the semi-finals for just the 2nd time (Picture: Ben Lumby)
Pulse have actually been enhanced by England duo Jade Clarke and Chelsea Pitman joining them for the 2023 season too.
From Pitman’s viewpoint, a great deal of their success this year has actually been down to having a great mix of youth and experience in Pulse’s team, however she included: “As a cumulative, we wish to achieve success, and I believe that bypasses whatever.”
Clarke acknowledged the strength of their top-four competitors too “Any group can beat other groups on the day, so I believe that’s implied we have actually never ever got ahead of ourselves.”
In Other Places, Loughborough – champs 2 years ago – stay in strong contention for this year’s last. They have actually just lost 3 video games this season, however 2 of those came versus London Pulse in Rounds 9 and 19.
Loughborough’s Mary Cholhok is the leading scorer in the Netball Super League this year (Picture: Ben Lumby)
If Pulse beat Storm in the semis and it causes a Pulse-Lightning last, it might be a difficult video game for the latter. Nevertheless, Loughborough has actually been a prominent side in the history of the Netball Super League, and they continue to look strong.
Their dominant objective shooter, Mary Cholhok, has the power to interrupt protectors with her 89.18 objective portion making her the leading objective scorer this year with 808 objectives to date.
Standing out on the protective side, on the other hand, is England worldwide Fran Williams, who sits 3rd in the rankings for the most intercepts with an outstanding 55 this season. Having 2 gamers of this basic leaves Lightning in an extremely strong position ahead of the last.
It is not a surprise that Thunder, who clinched a 4th Netball Super League title in 2015, are back in the semi-finals. They have actually remained in the competitors given that it was released and are among the most prominent, in addition to effective, groups.
Lenize Potgieter has actually been among Manchester Thunder’s stars this year (Picture: Ben Lumby)
With a strong academy producing gifted gamers, in addition to the addition of worldwide stars such as Lenize Potgieter from South Africa and England’s Natalie Metcalf, Thunder have actually continued to put in strong efficiencies throughout each round in this year’s league.
They have actually won their last 5 matches in the run-up to the semi-finals. Nevertheless, they were not effective last time they played Lightning, losing 65-57 in Round 14. Nevertheless, Thunder will take solace from the reality they succeeded versus Lightning in Round 5, winning 62-55.
View all of the Netball Super League semi-final action live this Friday on Sky Sports Mix from 6pm. Both matches will be readily available to stream on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel too.