Wolves look to end Lightning's stunning run
THE defending women's SBL champions the Joondalup Wolves will need to stop the Lakeside Lightning's impressive winning streak in order to get back to a second straight grand final.
Coming off winning last year's women's SBL championship, the Wolves finished the regular season in third position to set up a quarter final match up with the Stirling Senators which they needed just two games to win in.
That means that Joondalup now takes on the Lakeside Lightning in the semi finals with a grand final berth up for grabs.
While the Wolves are in good form themselves and have the experience of having won last year's championship, the Lightning won their last nine matches of the regular season to end up in second spot and then had little trouble beating the Mandurah Magic in two quarter final games.
Lakeside has now won 11 straight matches heading into the semi final series against Joondalup with Game 1 to take place this Saturday night at Joondalup Basketball Stadium with tip-off set for 7.30pm.
While Game 1 is at Joondalup Basketball Stadium, Game 2 and potentially Game 3 will be at Lakeside Recreation Centre where the Lightning are yet to lose in 12 matches this season.
Wolves' championship-winning coach Vlad Alava is hopeful that his team learned from two losses to the Lightning during the regular season, and is now ready to knock them off in the semi finals over the next two weekends to win through to the grand final of 2014.
"We see this semi finals as an opportunity to improve on our first two games against the Lightning in the regular season. The Lightning team beat us comprehensively in both those encounters and we were very disappointed in our first two performances," Alava said.
"The team respect the challenge that we face but we are confident in our own abilities to produce the goods in this series. We have plenty of playoff experience in the squad and the girls know what it takes and the effort required in this type of atmosphere.
"The Lightning girls have proved to be a very classy team all year and it tells you of the challenge ahead that we need to do what no one has been able to do during the regular season to book ourselves a place in the final - win at Lakeside. We're up for the challenge."
Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene Elise Photography
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