Netball Super League | Lucy Harris: “We just need to play our own game”

Severn Stars player, Lucy Harris, believes the team need to play their own game and make the most of their opportunities in matches as they go into Round 9.

Stars are preparing for a busy Easter period with matches against Celtic Dragons on Sunday followed by London Pulse on Monday at Studio 001 in Wakefield.

“We just need to play our own game, connect early on, reward ourselves from turnovers and get that score line reflecting the performance that we put out on court,” she said.

“We have a really great culture at Stars, although some of the recent results have been disappointing, we have really pulled together as a team and used each experience as a learning opportunity to develop our game and to become a really difficult challenge for every team when they come up against us.”

Stars have had a tough couple of weeks with losses to Leeds Rhinos by just four goals and a strong top four Saracens Mavericks side. Although the second half of the match against Vitality Netball Superleague newcomers Rhinos was a draw, they had done enough in the second quarter to secure the win over Stars.

Then last Monday (March 29), despite drawing two quarters against Mavericks, Stars could not prevent them carving out a decisive lead in the second and fourth quarters.

Harris, who usually plays at centre, said the team had been evaluating where they could do better over the last few games.

“We are really focused on improving our performances week on week,” she said. “We are addressing some of the issues that we experienced in previous games and we believe this will give us a much improved performance on Sunday and Monday.”

Now in her third season with Stars, a joint franchise between the University of Worcester and University of Gloucestershire, Harris is confident that the team can get some positive results this Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

She said: “Dragons will have taken some confidence from a good performance against Wasps recently and they do have some strong players, and London Pulse are a young team with exceptional defensive talent, but we are building each week, our connections are getting better and stronger and if we continue on the trajectory that we’re on, I’m optimistic about the results over the weekend.”