Severn Stars a Different Team from Last Match against Rhinos, says Shooter

Severn Stars shooter Paige Reed says that the team is “completely different” and stronger than the one that faced Leeds Rhinos earlier in the season as they prepare for the rematch this weekend.

Stars will be in action this weekend in the Vitality Netball Superleague against Rhinos, at London’s Copperbox Arena, on Sunday (May 16), at 12pm. Though Rhinos won the previous encounter this season by just four goals, Reed said the players would be using this close result last time, where Stars ultimately lost out, as motivation. After a loss to second placed Loughborough Lightning in a competitive match last weekend, Stars will be looking to build on that performance in this game to get their fourth win of the season.

“This weekend’s match against Rhinos is an important one for us for different reasons,” said Reed. “It gives us a chance to improve our performances from the last time we played them, but to also ensure we go for the win. Having had a strong performance last week, we are looking to continue this into the Rhinos game and the remaining matches. We are a completely different team to when we last played Rhinos and we are absolutely looking to get that win this time round. We’re different in terms of our attitude and application. We are a lot more connected on and off the court and are continuing to play to our individual strengths as well as sticking to our team targets. We have faced a lot of ups and downs during this season, however we have used this as a motivation to become better and stronger together.”

Newcomers to the League this season, Rhinos, will be looking for the win in a bid to move into fifth place. “Rhinos are a strong and dynamic team,” said Reed. “They hold many strengths, however, so do we. We won’t focus solely on the Rhinos team as we need to ensure we keep to our processes and our goals however we have done our homework and have been implementing that into training sessions.” 

Stars, a franchise jointly owned by the University of Worcester and University of Gloucestershire, comes into the match off the back of a defeat to Loughborough Lightning 50-41. After Lightning opened up an early lead and extended it significantly in the second quarter, Stars won the third quarter and in the opening minutes of the final quarter managed to pull the game back to within four goals before Lightning finally pulled away. Reed said the team had taken encouragement from how they had competed against one of the top teams.

“The Stars camp at the moment is a positive one,” she said. “It is never easy to leave the court with a loss however we are really proud of our team’s performances and it has allowed us to showcase what we can bring to the League and that we can actually push those teams sitting higher in the League. We are still pushing each other in training sessions as the work is far from done.

“In the second half of the season we need to continue to build as a team and push each other mentally. We are more than capable of winning more games than we have so far we need to stay in the game for four quarters and maintain consistency throughout.”

Though the match is being played behind closed doors due to Covid-19, it will be streamed on the Sky Sports YouTube channel.

For more information on Severn Stars visit the website www.severnstars.co.uk.