Murray Netball League continued its action-packed start to the season with a scintillating collection of round two matches on Saturday.
Congupna and Numurkah fought it out in a tight A-grade contest, with The Road eventually running out nine-goal winners, 49-38.
Both sides came into the match off the back of round one defeats, with Congupna losing to Mulwala, while Numurkah suffered a heavy 34-goal loss to Rumbalara.
The Road were eager to lock away their first victory of the year and, despite the close and contested match, they were able to walk away with the four points in the end.
Numurkah coach Caitlyn Price, while disappointed with the loss, was still pleased with her side’s improvement on its round one performance.
“I think it was better match-ups yesterday,” Price said.
“They play a similar style to us as they are very quick through the midcourt and they were very accurate under the post, so it was difficult for our defenders to get any easy balls or easy rebounds.
“We were able to match up one-on-one and it was a really good game yesterday.
“We will be up for the challenge again and will work on a few things at training and then step out on court again and we can only keep improving.”
Coming into the season, the Blues faced a tough start to their campaign with matches against Rumbalara, Congupna and next will be last year’s premier Tongala.
But this baptism of fire doesn’t concern Price, who believes that one of the great aspects of Murray Netball League this year is that every team is competitive.
“One of the good things about the Murray league this year is there are never going to be any easy games, so each week we are just going to get better and better as we come across those more high-performing teams,” she said.
“One of our positives from yesterday was that we did come away with a win by two goals in the last quarter, so we definitely didn’t give up and let them take a lead.
“We played out a solid four quarters, so definitely take that as a positive.”
In other round two games, Rumbalara continued its impressive start to the season, defeating fellow premiership contender Moama away from home, 41-49.
Mulwala won its second match for the season with a convincing 26-goal win (25-51) over Barooga.
Tongala has started its premiership defence in fine fashion as it claimed its second victory, also with a 26-goal win (31-57), over Echuca United.
Finley broke the trend of away team victories when it hammered Cobram 61-32 to secure its first win.
The closest game of the round was a battle between Nathalia and Deniliquin, with the Purples claiming a one-goal win (38-37) over the Rams in a tight encounter.
Heading into round three of the Murray Netball League season, Tongala, Mulwala and Rumbalara remain the only three undefeated sides in A-grade.