By Stephanie Smarrelli
The NSW Swifts drew first blood in the preliminary final and also had the last say with Sophie Fawns scoring the match-winner to seal a grand final appearance.
The Swifts' youngster stood up in the dying minutes against last year's premiers and ended the Fever's reign in front of a record preliminary final crowd of 9,437 fans.
West Coast Fever’s Courtney Bruce and Sunday Aryang set the tone early in the match, hunting and stealing possession to push the Fever ahead.
The Swifts defensive unit of Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner applied the pressure, forcing the Fever to work the ball around. Once in the goal circle though, the looming presence of Jhaniele Fowler was hard to stop.
Right on the first Power Five a tip from Klau to Turner was rewarded by Romelda Aiken-George who levelled the scores and then Housby gave the Swifts the lead.
Bruce cleaned up a missed Suncorp Super Shot attempt and the Fever took charge once again to lead at the end of the quarter by four goals thanks to a Sasha Glasgow Super Shot.
Glasgow made the most of her side's gains.
The intensity lifted throughout the second quarter with the sides trading goals to begin the quarter.
Aryang came flying out for an intercept and the Fever pushed their four-goal lead to six.
Maddy Proud led through the Swifts midcourt, feeding to the advantage of Romelda Aiken-George and working hard to get free from her opponent Verity Simmons.
A fumble in the Fever’s attack end and the Swifts were able to capitalise and narrow the margin ahead of the Power Five, however, a missed Suncorp Super Shot and the Fever pushed back out.
The Swifts through O’Shannassy and Klau did everything they could to prevent Glasgow from receiving the ball in the two-point zone and reaped the rewards with the Fever’s midcourt finding it hard to feed to the goal attack.
The side then ignited in the final minutes of the quarter with Housby and Sophie Fawns draining Suncorp Super Shots to level the scores.
Fowler then joined in on the fun and shot her own Super Shot to ensure the Fever had the lead going into halftime.
With only a half standing between both sides and the Grand Final, the competition on the court continued to heat up.
The Fever led at halftime but the Swifts were still pressing.
The ball seesawed from end to end to begin the third quarter with both sides treasuring their possession.
Alice Teague-Neeld and Simmons moved fluidly in attack for the Fever while Paige Hadley and Proud did the same for the Swifts.
The Swifts were first to slip up with Bruce taking advantage of a mistake from the home side to send the ball down to the Fever attack end.
The Fever’s defensive pressure started to become suffocating during the Power Five with the Swifts being forced to pass back and forth between each other and Bruce doing a wealth of work to be first to all the rebounds.
The Swifts found some relief with two Super Shots but the Fever remained in control up by five goals at the three-quarter time break.
With their backs up against the wall, the Swifts refused to go down without a fight, creating an opportunity off Fever’s first centre pass and reducing the margin.
Then moments later rebounding a miss in the Fever’s goal circle, however, Bruce was not about to let the Swifts get another goal, coming up with another intercept to steady the Fever.
Helen Housby was instrumental throughout the attack end for the Swifts.With pressure building, Klau decided to take the match into her control with an intercept, however, once again Bruce menaced the Swifts' attack and prevented them from scoring.
Only four goals separating the teams heading into the final five minutes, the scores were close enough to be anyone’s game.
The time to make an impact had arrived and 19-year-old Fawns was up for the challenge to energise her team and take the match on.
Fawns scored a Super Shot and then deflected a ball off Fever’s centre pass for Housby to then slot another. Fawns then scored another Super Shot to level the scores and fire up the home crowd.
Fawns continued her masterclass putting the pressure on the Fever as she led the Swifts to victory earning them a spot in next week's Grand Final.
The Swifts will face the Adelaide Thunderbirds in Melbourne to determine which team will be crowned the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball Champions.
