By Paige Buffham
Newly promoted netball team ‘First Choice’ are still yet to win a match in the Premier division, after a successful last season winning Division 1.
After their incredibly successful season last year, the team are yet to get a win due to the massive jump in standard between leagues.
The team lost to Christchurch Netball Club on Tuesday night.
Player Hannah Harvey said: “Although we are losing by about 3-4 times our goals, I don’t think we often give up as a collective, which is what I love about the team.”
First Choice netball have a reliable set of women playing in the team that perform to a high standard every week even without a win.
Roxy Samtani, who has been at the club for over 18 months, said: “One area to improve would be to not panic so much when our opposition is rapid in their play. We need to remain calm and composed.”
First Choice are competing with teams that have ex-Super League and regional players, showing the high standard of the league.
Sarah Bowen, another player at the club said: “It feels like we have gone up from Division 5 to Premier. I feel the Premier League could be split into Super-Prem and Prem”.
Harvey added: “We’re privileged to be playing against some amazing players and perhaps can learn a thing or two while we are here.”
Even through the upsets of scores, the team have such high morale and are supportive of each other.
Samtani said: “I love playing with this team because we’re all there for the same reason, to have fun. We’re a group of complete misfits but we all have each other’s backs.”
New member Hollie Stopler, who has only been with the team for three months, said: “I remind myself I have met so many amazing people through different stages of netball and wouldn’t change that for the world”.
First Choice return to the court next Tuesday evening against Bournemouth Netball Club Ferns, where they go again to try to get their first win of the season.
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