Knights: “Good Feeling to Secure Semi-Final spot”
Wasps Netball captain Hannah Knights says her side are peaking at the right time as they head into the final two games of the regular season.
The league leaders confirmed a top-four finish in the Vitality Netball Superleague last weekend and will travel to Glasgow to face Strathclyde Sirens on Friday 26 April (7pm centre-pass).
The Black and Golds are unbeaten in their last five matches and four-time Superleague champion Knights believes it is important Wasps keep developing with the semi-finals on the horizon.
“It’s a really good feeling to have secured that semi-final spot,” said Knights.
“I think we’ve managed to put ourselves in a good position as the season comes to a close.
“Consistency is so important for us moving forward so that we can build on the momentum we have at the moment, and take that into the semi-final.”
“It’s really important not to take your eye off the ball, we still need to go out in these next two games and beat those teams. Obviously we will be watching the other results and seeing who we might come up against in the semi-finals, but at the moment we are still focused on building our own game.”
Wasps came away as convincing winners when they last met Sirens, securing a 61-34 victory at Ricoh Arena. The win came before the reigning champions’ first defeat of the season, which sparked a tough run of form.
But Knights says the team is stronger now than they were when they last met Sirens, and has grown as a result of those mid-season losses.
She said: “We’ve come off those defeats stronger, particularly mentally, and we know how to finish out games. We have now built more resilience to come back from behind.
“The last few games have been great for us and hopefully we’re peaking at the right time of the season. To come out of the tough games we’ve been in with wins has been great. We’re looking forward to the game on Friday and hopefully we can put into practice some of things we have worked on in training.”
“It’s always difficult coming up against a team that has nothing to lose, Sirens have everything to gain and there isn’t any pressure on them. The pressure sits with us. You have to learn how to absorb that pressure and play through it when you’re top of the table.”