Surrey Storm all set for Mavericks Superleague curtain-raiser
19 January 2012
The 2012 Fiat Netball Superleague starts in style tonight with Surrey Storm set to take on Hertfordshire Mavericks in a repeat of last year’s Grand Final.
The sell-out match will be shown live on Sky Sports 4 tonight from 7.30pm, with both teams looking to take first blood in what is expected to be a tightly contested season.
The match will be the first regular season match in charge for new Storm player-coach Tamsin Greenway, and will see her go head-to-head with ex-England colleague and new Mavericks team coach Karen Atkinson.
New captain Becky Trippick will lead Storm out tonight at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, alongside vice-captain and England international Rachel Dunn.
Talking ahead of tonight’s game, Rachel Dunn said, “After a good pre-season the squad are all raring to get going in the new Superleague season, starting tonight at Mavericks.
“Games don’t come much bigger than this in the regular season, and it’s exciting we start the season against the same tough opposition we faced in the Grand Final last year.
“We’ve got some new faces and we’ll be looking to start strong and send out a message to the rest of the league. After a fantastic Surrey Conference in the recent pre-season Fast Net tournament, we were all disappointed with our performance in the finals.
We’ve learnt some lessons, but Superleague is a completely different game, and we hope to finish the night with that first win under our belts.”
Storm welcome back some more familiar faces to the squad tonight, with Adele Modeste, Rhianne McHale, Gemma Cosentino, Stef Bello, Natalie Seaton, Katy Holland, Hannah Reid and Fran Plom all returning to Storm for the new season.
Of course no new season would be complete without new signings, and they don’t come much bigger than Storm’s new Goal Attack Pamela Cookey, who was signed in the summer from Team Bath.
Other exciting new arrivals include Kathryn Ainsworth, Lucy Convey and Lorraine Betsy, who will all be looking to make their mark on the team.
Storm fans who are not travelling to Hertfordshire tonight can follow the action live on Sky Sports 4 from 7.30pm, or follow on twitter @surreystorm.
