THE Joondalup Wolves' women's SBL championship defence heats up with a quarter-final match up with the Stirling Senators with the Lady Wolfpack the sole representative for their club in post-season action.

The men's and women's Wolves teams have been permanent fixtures of the playoffs since 2008 but now the men missed out on post-season action in 2014 only narrowly finishing in ninth position when the Mandurah Magic beat the South West Slammers last Saturday night.

The Wolfpack men missed the playoffs in 2007 but were part of the finals the last six years including winning the 2011 championship and losing last year's grand final to the Lakeside Lightning in a terrific contest.

However, the women are again gearing up for a playoff campaign coming off being the minor premiers in 2012 and then winning last year's championship after a dominant grand final victory over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The Wolves finished the regular season in third position with a 15-7 record despite losing their last two matches and they now take on the sixth-placed Stirling Senators in a quarter-final match up starting this Saturday night at Warwick Leisure Centre.

Game 2 will take place next Saturday night at Joondalup Basketball Stadium with Game 3 also there if required on Sunday afternoon.

The Senators enter the playoffs having won just one of their last five matches but with a talented squad headed up by Taylor Wild, Tegan Walker and Amber Land, and well coached by the 2013 women's SBL Coach of the Year Glenn Ellis.

The Wolves had been on a run of winning eight of nine matches before losing the last two of the regular season to the Willetton Tigers and Lakeside Lightning, but they already had third position sewn up.

The Lady Wolfpack enters the playoffs for 2014 with a strong squad again led by Nikita-Lee Martin, Alex Kerr, Chelsea Burns, Ellyce Ironmonger, Shani Amos, Amanda Frontino and Amy Kidner.

Joondalup Wolves coach Vlad Alava did a terrific job guiding his team to the championship last year, has done well again in 2014 to have them finish in third position and now he's looking forward to the challenge that awaits against the Stirling Senators.

"This will be an exciting series and we will channel all our energies towards achieving good results in the next two weeks," Alava said.

"Playing Stirling is always a challenge. There is a lot of history there it being the local northern derby and certainly we know that we will be in for a hard fought quarter finals series. Coach Ellis always has plenty of energy and leads his team well."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Deprimo Photography