First senior international call-ups for Tash Pavelin and Jayda Pechova as Blue & Gold trio named in Vitality Roses squads for Uganda, Australia and Fast5
Tash Pavelin has received her first senior international call-up as she joins fellow Team Bath Netball Superleague player Imogen Allison in the England squad for October’s home Vitality International Series against Uganda She Cranes.
Pavelin and Blue & Gold new girl Jayda Pechova have also been named in the Vitality Roses squad for November’s FAST5 Netball World Series in New Zealand, while Allison is in the group that will head to Australia to face the Diamonds as the build-up to the 2023 Netball World Cup ramps up.
Paige Reed – who, like Allison and Pavelin, is a University of Bath alumna – is another player to earn her first senior selection from England Head Coach Jess Thirlby as the Roses return to international action for the first time since the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Pavelin, Pechova and Reed are all members of the Roses Futures programme, which allows players to focus on their dual careers while gaining exposure to high-level training and international match-play experience.
Defender Pavelin and goal-attack Reed, who studied Natural Sciences and Sports Performance respectively, join Allison and Bath alumna Sophie Drakeford-Lewis in a youthful Roses squad for the series against Uganda, with games on 5th October at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, and on 8th and 9th October at London’s Copper Box Arena.
Following the Uganda series, a more experienced Roses squad featuring Allison flies to Australia for the first time since 2018 to face the Commonwealth Games champions in a three-match international series.
Then, on 5th and 6th November, a squad of ten players – featuring Pavelin and fellow defender Pechova, who has joined Team Bath for the 2023 season and will study Sports Performance at the University of Bath – will then take part in the FAST5 Netball World Series in New Zealand.
Thirlby said: “The return of FAST5 is a welcome addition to our international calendar as world netball look to strengthen the breadth of the game and its appeal. For us, it affords further opportunity to expose new and emerging talent to the conditions of international netball and will help accelerate some key learnings for those younger athletes who have recently missed out on a World Youth Cup due to Covid and those on the periphery of the team narrowly missing out on selection for recent senior events.”
