Lavington hammered the Hoppers, 63-30, on Saturday.

In the league’s first year in 1993, North lost by 36 goals, 57-21, against Albury.

Despite that, the Hoppers still made the grand final and played in the first seven.

“We tried a lot of different things, but we were unable to probably curb their defence end,” disappointed North coach Fiona Boyer said.

“I thought Kate Yensch was outstanding in defence and she gave them a lot of ball down the court.”

North was on the receiving end of a Panthers’ outfit smarting after a scrappy win over a rebuilding Wodonga Raiders.

“We were really disappointed with how we played last week, well below par, and we worked hard during the week on a few things we felt we let ourselves down with,” coach Tamara Mathews said.

“I guess we looked at North’s strengths and we knew that we had to shut down Grace Senior, our defenders worked hard on some strategies to shut her down and I think that worked really well.

“Rhiannon Dolahenty started on her and Sarah Meredith was in goal defence and we rotated our defenders.

“We’re so fortunate that whoever we have in that circle, they get the job done.”

Senior had bolted to the goalscoring lead after five rounds with 201 at 77 per cent, but the Panthers were able to restrict her to 22.

It was the same amount Lavington’s Alison Meani posted, with support from Sarah Senini (21) and Maggie Young (20).

Maddy Lloyd joined Yensch and Dolahenty in the home team’s best, while Jordann Johnson, Kirby Hilton and Molly Goldsworthy tried hard on a tough day for the proud club.

“We just didn’t treasure the ball and unforced errors, our skill level is much better than that in terms of the possession that we didn’t need to cough up,” Boyer said.

“Credit to Lavington for the pressure they applied, but our skills are a lot better than that.”

Meanwhile, Raiders scored one of their best recent wins with an upset, 36-28, against Wangaratta Rovers.

The Hawks went into the away game with just the one loss, while Raiders had only one win.

But the youthful home outfit responded with Vashti Muller outstanding, while Ainslee Dowling was the pick of the Hawks.

Yarrawonga snapped a two-match losing streak with a 51-41 win over Myrtleford, with Indiana Frauenfelder terrific.

Wangaratta’s Gabby Wales was best in the 57-30 win over Wodonga and Corowa-Rutherglen’s Zoe McLeish was strong with 28 goals in the 54-46 win over Albury.