Netsiyanwa remaining positive despite Liffey Celtics’ loss to Wildcats

FloMAX Liffey Celtics Head Coach, Hillary Netsiyanwa is remaining upbeat despite seeing his side slip to an 82-67 defeat away to SETU Waterford Wildcats in the Domino’s Women’s Super League on Saturday night.

While his side are still awaiting their first points two games into the campaign, the Celtics boss was quick to underscore the improvements his team made after their opening night loss to defending champions, Killester in Leixlip the week before.

Indeed, the performance in Mercy College on Saturday was made all the more encouraging given the fact that the Kildare side was without the services of Ireland senior international, Sorcha Tiernan who was still recovering from the ankle injury she picked up in the Killester game.

It meant Kelly Bracken stepped into the breach, the young Ireland underage international turning in an impressive display alongside new Americans, Brooke Kane and Paige Cote.

“There were massive improvements from last week's performance, especially considering the fact that we didn't have Sorcha playing as well,” remarked Netsiyanwa.

“Kelly Bracken stepped up, starting off as point guard and she did the club proud, having only trained one session this week because she was down with tonsillitis.

“Paige had a really good game. She had a tough task of guarding Sarah Hickey, who is definitely the standard for the Super League.

“Brooke finished with 22 points. She came out flying in the first quarter and it's just what I've been expecting from her, to be that scoring presence for us, but also be a defensive presence.

“We had a really good start, and we went up by eight or nine points in the first quarter, but Waterford came back into it and there was only one point in it at the half.

“They had a strong third quarter that hurt us a good bit and we were fighting back from that point on.

“But the girls really did put in a fight and we fixed a couple of the things that were hurting us last week, so it's just onwards and upwards. It's a progression battle at this stage.

“I’m happy with the improvements that we've made, although obviously not happy with the result, but all things considered, there's progress there and we're heading in the right direction,” he insisted.

Netsiyanwa will be hoping that his players can finally get off the mark this coming Sunday when they make the trip to Mardyke Arena to take on a UCC Glanmire side, who themselves will be targeting their first points of the season having suffered early reversals at the hands of Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell and Killester.

And the Cork side will have no shortage of incentive to put one over their Leixlip rivals, having lost out to them by 22 points in last season’s Super League quarter-finals.

Netsiyanwa knows his team have another big challenge on their hands, but believes the growing familiarity among the players leaves them better equipped to deal with it.

“We didn't have that many games coming into pre-season due to a number of things, but now, having two games under our belts, knowing each other a bit better and knowing what teams are going to try to do to stop us and how we can counteract that, it’s only helping us get better,” insisted the Liffey Celtics head coach.

“A couple of players have moved up in the rotation and Katie Williamson is back as well and she's trying to find her footing with the team and with the league.

“But, no doubt, you'll see her name come up a lot over the next couple of games, and the same with the likes of Áine O'Connor and Kate O’Flaherty,” he predicted.