WEDNESDAY proved to be a tough night for the South Coast Blaze as both their women's teams lost to the UTS Randwick Sparks.
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In the open's fixture, the Blaze went up against the UTS Randwick Sparks, who sit in fourth place in conference A.
The Blaze started off strong, with defence Peti Talanoa, Te-Arn Bradley and Elecia Parrott picking up a couple of intercepts, helping Blaze to lead 15-13 at the break.
South Coast went goal for goal with UTS for the first half of the second quarter but some poorly placed passes and positioning from the Blaze attack saw Sparks pull ahead by six, with the score 30-24 at half time.
Sparks maintained their lead in the third and fourth quarter, with Blaze not able to claw back the goals.
It's another disappointing loss for the open's side, who continue to start off strong but can't hold on to bring home the win against the more established Premier League teams.
With the Opens only going down by 10-15 goals in their past few games, there is some promise the team can pull it together and hunt down more wins this season in their last five games.
While in the under 23s, the Blaze put in a gallant effort against UTS Randwick Sparks but unfortunately, their fairytale run came to an end.
The Blaze started off strong, with a couple of turnovers, including some by Bilyana Milevski at goal-keeper, seeing Blaze take a one-point lead in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Blaze took an early lead as offensive pair goal-shooter Ky-Mani Schwenke and goal-attack Emily Dunn capitalised off numerous Sparks attack errors and missed shots - thanks to strong defence from Bilyana Mileveski (GK), Jessica Bowden (GD) and Sharnee Behr (WD).
However, UTS managed to wrangle the score to within one again in the last three minutes and went goal for goal, with the Blaze keeping its one-goal lead going into the half, up 23-22.
Blaze continued centre for centre with Sparks early in the third quarter, with Camden local and training partner Aimee Landrigan stepping up into goal-defence - in only her second game for the team this season.
Unfortunately, some rebounds off missed Blaze shots and turnovers in attack saw Sparks pull ahead by five towards the middle of the quarter.
Coach Regan Tweddle, taking full advantage of rolling substitutions, put on fresh legs midway through the quarter, with experienced player Jess Bowden going into goal-defence and Illawarra young-gun Mia Evans going into goal-attack.
Both players, had an immediate impact, with Bowden securing a turnover and Evans hitting numerous long shots to help Blaze bring back the score to within three (36-33).
The fourth quarter was a tussle with Blaze going all out to reign in the score and it looked like a comeback was on the cards again.
However, they couldn't peg it back against a determined Sparks, tying 12-all in the last quarter, with the final score 48-45.
It was a hard-fought game but it just wasn't the South Coast Blaze's night.
