Severn Stars’ Head Coach is keen to see her side stamp their authority early on in this weekend’s match as they look to defend their position in the Super League table.

Jo Trip is keen to continue the positivity of the last few weeks, which has seen her side complete back-to-back wins, when they face Surrey Storm at the Surrey Sports Park, on Saturday (May 18) at 6pm.

“It is great to be back on the better side of the scoreboard over the past couple of weeks and we look to further cement our place in the top four this weekend,” she said. “Surrey is a highly competitive team and they love playing in front of their home crowd, so we must be at our best and come out of the starting blocks strong to stamp our dominance on the game early.”

Stars had an impressive win against Surrey Storm earlier in the season 72-55, but there is currently only one place separating fourth-placed Stars from their fifth-placed opponents in the table. Stars will be buoyed by their wins over Cardiff Dragons and then Strathclyde Sirens away in Scotland last weekend, 50-61.

Trip added: “We are excited to tidy up on a few things before heading into a tough rematch against Surrey Storm. We know they will have looked at ways that they can break us down so we have been focusing on the areas we feel we can be better in and making sure we demand this of each other in training during the week.”

In last weekend’s match against Sirens, an error from the Scottish side on their centre pass saw Stars get the ball back and shooter Lefébre Rademan net to open up a 2-4 lead. While Sirens struggled for goals, Stars continued to build their advantage to six and ended the first quarter with a substantial lead, 7-15.

In the second quarter, Stars’ defence turned the ball over and it was duly converted by the Stars shooters, opening the goal difference to 10, which soon became 12 with a rebound from defender Jas Brown leading to another goal. An impressive performance by Brown and fellow

defender Jo Trip saw them get several turnovers and at the half-time whistle the away side had a daunting 19-36 lead.

Rebekah Airey entered the match at goal keeper for Stars for the start of the third quarter. Sirens started strongly turning the ball over early on, however Stars matched them with a turnover of their own. A run of goals from Sirens saw them gradually get back into the game, but another goal from Stars shooter Sigi Burger kept them at bay, 29-43. Stars ended the quarter with a diminished but still healthy lead, 36-50.

Sirens came back into the game in the final 15 minutes and closed the gap to 11. However, a long bomb effort by Rademan, a subsequent huge jump to intercept by Airey and another key interception from Stars centre Ruth Hughes saw off any danger of a comeback, with the match ending 50-61.

Trip said: “Not every win is going to be pretty, and Sirens was one of those games, but at the end of the day, we secured the three points that we needed and that is what matters most. Sirens’ fight to the final whistle was impressive, but we were able to run several different combinations which was our intention. On defence, I was really pleased with our intent and our structures as we saw a lot of success from our repeated efforts in this as we racked up our highest number of gains this season. On attack we had some brilliant passages of play but needed to be sharper in running our lines and work harder to lose our defence, which we all admittedly took accountability for post-game.”

Stars, a franchise owned by the University of Worcester, have their next home match at the University of Worcester Arena on Friday, May 24 7.30pm.

For tickets to the game against London Pulse or other home games, or for more information, visit the Severn Stars website: https://www.severnstars.co.uk/.