SUNDAY marked the Pigeons 10th consecutive year playing in the A grade grand final – which they finished on a high.
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The crowd was in a frenzy as it watched the score yo-yo between Yarrawonga and Lavington, at Lavington Oval.
The home side went down by two goals, as the physical clash ended in a 37-35 defeat.
Having beaten Yarrawonga two weeks ago, a determined Panthers outfit initially stepped onto the court, heading into the first break with a four-goal lead.
The team's defensive pressure, and accuracy of goal shooter Sarah Senini, left them in good shape for the remainder of the game.
The Pigeons were hungry for a win and fired up to even the score by half-time. The score remained even through until the final minutes, when Yarrawonga pushed its lead out to six goals. Lavington kept its eye on the prize and closed the margin to two before running out of time.
Pigeons co-coach Laura Bourke said it was an “exciting” day for the club, which went home with two netball and two football wins.
“We worked really hard as a team today and I think you can go out and play individually and get 10 turnovers, but unless your playing as a team you won’t get the result,” she said.
“The Lavi girls put on a really tough game, they have worked really hard to get to where they are and they deserved to be in the grand final.”
The win was bittersweet for Jaclyn Flanagan, who injured her knee during the warm-up and was unable to take the court. Best on ground was awarded to Yarrawonga's Holly Milner.
Lavington captain Sarah Meredith spoke for her side following the loss.
“Congratulations to Yarrawonga, you had a great game guys,” she said.
“Our girls played their hearts out, it just wasn’t our day but we will come back stronger.”
Yarrawonga co-coach Bridget Cassar said they played disciplined netball.
“It was a high-quality game and we just knew if we stuck to what we had to do and stuck to our plan we would be right,” she said.
“Lavi beat us a couple years ago in a grand final and we've had really good tussles with them the last four years.”
Netball Victoria announced a premiers competition and invited Yarrawonga to represent the Ovens and Murray.