Canberra is celebrating ''Mad Monday'' today after registering back to back titles in the State League Netball, beating Arawang for the second year running at the ACT Netball Centre yesterday.
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Canberra ran out a 37-30 winner in a game which looked like it could go either way for most of it. Canberra captain, Jessica Bristol, summed it up after the match, saying her team ''hung in there the whole match and put their foot down in the last quarter when it mattered''.
Bristol, a goal shooter, started on the bench and had to continue to cheer from the sidelines as Jasmine Keene and vice-captain Shannon Priestly held fort inside the circle.
Arawang looked the better side after a scrappy opening quarter. It took an 11-7 lead into the first break, which they extended to 15-9 before Canberra started to fight back.
''We were turning the ball over quite a bit,'' Canberra coach Natalee Withers said. ''As soon as we settled and played smart with the ball and got it in to our shooters, we were able to put it on the scoreboard.''
Canberra eventually hit the front in the second quarter, but again it was Arawang that was up at the major break, 17-16.
When the scores were locked at 25 apiece at three-quarter-time, the game looked like it was heading for a repeat of last year's over-time performance, but some turnovers by Arawang in the last quarter led to a couple of brilliant goals under pressure from goal attack Keene.
Canberra hit the front, 31-30, with seven minutes to play and called a surprising time-out as it grabbed the momentum. Any risk of losing it was soon put aside when Keene sunk a long bomb - to the delight of the loud Canberra fans.
Keene sunk two more in quick succession, then Priestly added another, at which point Arawang called a time-out, five goals down with three minutes left on the clock.
''The turnovers that happened were at crucial moments of the game and when that happens it's really hard to just keep slogging it out,'' Arawang coach, Kim Symons said.
Not even the time-out could break Canberra's run, with Keene hitting another goal while falling out of court, putting the game beyond doubt.
For Arawang the grand final appearance seemed out of the question five weeks ago before it started on a winning run, and Symons couldn't find fault in her players' determination in the final game.
''They gave it everything, they left everything out there, I can't turn around and say we had more to give, I don't think we did,'' Symons said.
In the presentations after the game, Lacey Borg of Belconnen was awarded Player of the Series for the second year in a row.