Netball Super League | Janz-Dawson demands Stars consistency

Josie Janz-Dawson is calling on her Severn Stars side to become more consistent as they chase a third successive Vitality Netball Superleague win when they travel to Team Bath on Friday (April 28th).

Stars head into the game full of confidence after they stunned reigning champions Surrey Storm with a 66-62 win at the University of Worcester Arena on Monday to secure back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

Another victory for seventh-placed Stars could boost their chances of sneaking into top-four contention and put them level on points with Team Bath, who currently sit fifth having won five of their 11 games this season.

“There are always things you can improve on and work on, and I think for us it’s that consistency,” Janz-Dawson said.

“It is really about us piecing together, being able to have players go out and play a really confident style of netball regardless of the score line.”

Despite their incredible result on Monday, Janz-Dawson is expecting a tough test against Team Bath who inflicted a 39-48 defeat when the sides met at the University of Worcester Arena last month.

“Bath is a very good team,” she said.

“They’re physically strong, and they’re coming off a win in their last game.

“We never get too far ahead of ourselves. It will be a big challenge for us playing in front of the Bath crowd, as well as Bath being on a high after their win.

“It was a really confident performance [against Surrey].

“We had a couple of lapses, but not a seven or eight goal run, which has happened in the last couple of games, so it was a better performance from us.”

After a tough start to the season, the Severn Stars goal keeper is pleased that her side is now starting to gel on court.

“When we started the season, we’d literally had like two games together and some of those were a little disjointed because some of the girls were away with the England under 21s and with the Quad Series, which set us back a little bit.

“We knew it was going to be a growing season, so we didn’t have a lot of expectations about what we were supposed to put out on the court to get wins.

“We were still trying different combinations and, having a few injuries in the team, we’ve had to put players on and mismatch them in different roles, especially at the front end.”

But Janz-Dawson, who put in a player of the match performance against Surrey after frustrating their towering 6ft 7in goal shooter Megan Craig, has been impressed with the depth within the Stars squad.

“We’re very proud to be able to put a different line up out of our 12 players. “Yasmin [Hodge-England] came on and ultimately her shooting helped us see the game out, which was amazing.

“To get a result like that against Surrey Storm, it’s a good confidence boost for a squad like us.

“We never go into a game expecting to win. For us, if we can do the basics well and score, you always put yourself in a good position on the 60-minute mark. We’re trying to make sure we score more than 15 points a quarter and keeping the opposition’s tally down as low as possible.”

Stars face a busy Bank Holiday weekend, travelling to the Ricoh Arena to face Wasps Netball on Monday (6pm).