The senior Island side beat Team Bath Toucans 36-34 but then lost to league leaders Roman Glass 45-28.
‘Seven out of the eight quarters we played on the day were superb, top-of-the-league standard, but we just had one bad quarter, against Roman Glass, which cost us,’ said Meredith.
‘The last games we played we won both but, hard as it is to believe, I really felt this time that we gave our best performance even though we only got a bonus point in the second for reaching half score.
‘Against Toucans, who have access to the same coaching and facilities that Superleague side Bath do, this was the best I’ve seen us play. We really came together and it was superb – at one point we were 11 points ahead and really outplaying them.
‘They changed things round and worked their way back into it, but we held our nerve, didn’t lose out rhythm and got the win.’
Jersey, who lost to Toucans last time they played, were featuring a new attack – although injury worries Calli Bushell and Sophie Hickey were declared fit to play, there was a late injury to Lynsey Pitman, who didn’t travel. This meant that captain Jenna Meredith moved from wing attack to goal attack and Jacy Brown moved to WA.
‘Considering that they hadn’t played in that order before, it was pleasing to see and has given us another option,’ added Meredith.
Next up came one of the promotion favourites, Roman Glass. ‘With the achievement and effort following the first match, we got off to a slow start against a good team who were in with fresh legs,’ explained the coach. ‘In the first quarter they beat us by about 14 goals but we only lost by 17 in the end because we started to work them out and brought new players on each quarter, got back into it and lived with them.’
Jersey squad: Jenna Meredith, Laura Beeston, Carol McKeon, Jacy Brown, Calli Bushell, Sarah Thatcher, Sophie Hickey, Nicole Goddard, Hayley Miller, Laura Macfarlane, Sharon West.
