Severn Stars Head Coach, Jo Trip, says she is pleased with the way her Super League side has bounced back after their first defeat as they prepare for their second away game in a row.

Stars will face Cardiff Dragons this weekend, on Saturday (March 23) at 5pm at the House of Sport in Cardiff.

This comes after another strong away win, beating London Pulse 47-54 at the Copper Box Arena last Saturday (March 16), which allowed Stars to keep their third place in the League table.

Though the home side staged a comeback in the third quarter to close the gap, Stars, a franchise owned by the University of Worcester, maintained their composure to take the win. This was particularly significant after their winning streak came to an end against Manchester Thunder the week before.

Trip said: “I am really pleased with the way the group bounced back from the loss against Thunder. We knew we were capable of so much more, we trained hard and combinations grew a lot during the week and we went out and applied it on Saturday against Pulse.

“We continue to review, learn, adapt and apply from game to game. We will continue to look at ways we can open up our shooting circle and how we can win more ball defensively. We continue to focus on one game at a time and build ourselves to meet our opposition. The team are a very hard working group and it is great to be on target for our goals this season.”

Trip said that the match against Dragons will be another challenge. “They have a strong line-up throughout the court and we will need to make sure we continue to build our game while keeping to our structures and strategies,” she said. “We will again, need a high work rate to maintain possession and starve their defence of the ball. We will need to work within our structures on defence to increase our pressure, force errors and gain possession.”

The team celebrated another win against Pulse last week, their fourth of the season. The teams were neck and neck in the opening minutes of the match, with Stars matching Pulse goal for goal until 7-7 when a turnover and a centre pass saw Stars leading by three goals, 7-10. Stars extended their lead as the quarter progressed and by end of the first 15 minutes they were 11-17 ahead.

Five goals in a row for Stars at the start of the second quarter made the scoreline 11-22. Pulse made up a few goals, but Stars were right back to their task with an impressive long bomb shot from Lefébre Rademan. Although Pulse got a turnover and scored, Stars were able to match them with a turnover themselves on the Pulse centre pass. The away side kept their advantage as half-time approached and at the interval had a healthy eight goal lead, 24-32, thanks to some impressive work from mid-courters around the shooting circle and in turn good pressure from the Stars defence at the other end of the court.

In the third quarter Pulse staged a comeback, drawing within five goals of Stars at one stage with seven minutes to go. But, despite the home side taking the quarter by one goal, Stars maintained their overall lead, 36-43.

Stars were helped along in the early minutes of the final quarter by a flurry of goals from Rademan. With three minutes to go, Stars led by 10 and though Pulse made a last gasp effort to close the gap, Stars’ lead was never under threat and the match ended 47-54.

Trip said: “We stuck to task, were smart on the ball and worked tirelessly for each other to maintain possession and take the ball to goal. On defence we were relentless, shutting down Pulse’s options and creating much needed turnovers.”

Stars’ next home game is against Surrey Storm at the University of Worcester Arena on Sunday, April 7 at 4pm.

For tickets for further games or more information, visit the Severn Stars website: https://www.severnstars.co.uk/.

 

photos by @malloryporcher