Champions Pulse beat Lightning to reach grand finalImage source, Hayley BavinImage caption, Sophie Kelly was named player of the matchByMike PeterBBC Sport journalistPublished30 minutes agoDefending champions London Pulse progressed to the grand final of Netball Super League with a 60-56 win over Loughborough Lightning.Liv Tchine scored 30 goals as Pulse set up a rematch with AO Manchester Thunder, to whom they lost by the same scoreline in last week’s major semi-final.
Pulse, who finished second behind Thunder in the regular season, triumphed over their opponents in the knockout stages for the second successive year, having beaten them in last year’s grand final.
After the first quarter finished 16-16, Pulse took a 30-29 lead in the half-time break and closed out at a 47-45 lead after 45 minutes to win the preliminary final.
Samantha Wallace-Joseph scored 28 goals for Lightning, who finished third in the regular season despite winning their opening nine matches.
“It was just amazing. We knew what we had to do. We knew it was going to be a really, really tough game but I am so so proud of everyone on that team,” reported player of the match Sophie Kelly, who scored 22 goals at the Lee Valley Velopark.
“We stuck to the gameplan and everyone left everything on the court. We deserved that so much.
“Against Thunder [in the major semi-final], we weren’t scoring enough goals in each quarter so that was one of our focuses.”
Pulse and Thunder beat each other in their home fixtures in the regular season before the Manchester side came out on top last week.
Coach Sam Bird praised the reaction of Pulse’s players after losing the major semi-final, saying: “They knew I was upset – the leaders in the group reported, ‘We know we can do better than this, this is on us’.”
She added: “I enjoyed the way we played. We talked about having that tenacity and belief and really breaking up the partnerships of Loughborough.
“After our first quarter, I thought that was our best quarter [of the season] and they just pushed on for the whole game.”
The Netball Super League grand final will be played at Co-op Live in Manchester on Saturday, 20 June (15:00 BST).
