Team Bath must slay Dragons for semi-final place

Team Bath’s netballers face the biggest game of their season to date when they tackle Celtic Dragons at the University of Bath on Monday (14 May).

The winner of the contest will book a place in the Superleague Showdown – the new climax to the Fiat Netball Superleague season.

“It’s definitely now or never, there won’t be any other chances for us,” said Jess Garland, Team Bath’s head coach, ahead of Monday’s play-off.

“On paper we’ve got the quality and class across our team to be more than a match for Celtic Dragons,” she added. “This is our opportunity to really prove that we deserve a semi-final place. I think we’re more than deserving of a place in the semis, but it’s actions not words that are important now.”

Monday’s game is a play-off between Team Bath, who finished fourth in the top tier of the Superleague, and Dragons who came top of the lower tier. The winner will face a semi-final against Surrey Storm on Saturday 19 May at the Superleague Showdown in Dagenham, with a place in the grand final at stake.

Team Bath hope to welcome back defenders Sam Cook and Chantelle Wopara to face Dragons following spells on the sidelines through injury.

Team Bath met Celtic Dragons in Cardiff in the opening game of the season, but went down 61-49.  Garland added: “We haven’t played Celtic since the first game of the season, which seems a long time ago. It will be good to meet them again so we can see how far we’ve come since then.”

Team Bath rounded off their top tier campaign at Surrey Storm on Saturday, going down 66-47. Kat Hayes impressed at goal shooter with 30 goals from 34 attempts.

The pre-match entertainment ahead of Monday’s big play-off at the Sports Training Village gets underway at 7.15pm. You can book your tickets online at Ticketline at http://teambath.ticketline.co.uk/ or by calling or call the Ticketline on 0844 888 4412. For group bookings please call 0844 888 4420.

The Superleague Showdown takes place at the Sporthouse in Dagenham with semi-finals on Saturday 19 May followed by the grand final and third/fourth place play-off on Sunday 20 May.

For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd on 01225 383518 or by email at press@matchtight.co.uk

You can also find out more about Team Bath at www.teambath.com , follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teambath or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/teambath

The University of Bath is The Sunday Times University of the Year 2011/12.