Veupunama win third straight title

VEUPUNAMA claimed their third PNG Mixed and Men’s Netball Association title with a hard-fought 27-21 win over Kamuna in their mixed premier grade final last Friday.
The grand final at the Rita Flynn Complex, started with Veupunama taking a 9-5 lead in the first quarter.
Maxwell Leka and Rayleen Andrew combined to have Veupunama leading 21-8 at halftime.
Kamuna defenders Courtney Abel and Jarrod Anderson made the adjustments and that saw their front line make a better fist at Veupunama’s goal to trail 24-17 at the end of the third quarter.
The last quarter had both teams going all out with Kamuna scoring four points while Veupunama had three, but that was enough to get them the title.
Veupunama coach Tanya Gulo-Vui said her side were overwhelmed to have defended their title for a third time.
“We are excited, it feels really good to defend the title for the third year,” Gulo-Vui said.
“It’s been ongoing, us against Kamuna so I had to put in my strongest line-up in that first quarter.
“It worked well, we led but the third quarter had us dropped off a little but I’m glad we were able to pick up in the final quarter.
“Our defenders really stood out and everyone performed.”
Unfortunately, Veupunama’s men’s team were not able to defend their title as Kamuna beat them 28-21 in their final. Kamuna coach Lawrence Lahari was impressed with the men’s performance saying the team played well defensively.
“I thing defensively, that’s how we won the game. Our defenders Tivaum Gigimat and Eugene Eka did really well to defend which gave us lots of options for our shooters,” Lahari said.
“Our shooter Kota Jospeh was very accurate under the hoop. He did not miss many attempts so that was really great.”