The annual Netball Performance League (NPL) tournament this year took place at University of Nottingham from 26th-28th July. University of Exeter netball performance athletes Amaya Herold (U21), Ellie Gabriel (U21) and Issy Routh (U19) all represented Team Bath, with Alice O’Brien (U21) representing London Pulse.
Team Bath finished 2nd with a silver medal in the U21 competition and 8th in the U19 competition, and London Pulse took 3rd and a bronze in the U21 competition.
In the regular season Amaya and Ellie were consistently part of the Team Bath U21 squad who finished 4th in the league just 2 points behind Leeds Rhinos in 3rd. Issy started the season as a training partner with the Team Bath U19 squad and stepped up into the final tournament squad. Alice has recently been named in the Netball Northern Ireland 2024-25 programme as part of the emerging warriors squad and joined the London Pulse U21 squad for the tournament.
Amaya and Ellie both graduate from University of Exeter this year having been part of the Team Bath NPL squads throughout their time at University. As well as it being their final NPL tournament it is also the final tournament for U21 squads with the pathway moving to U23 squads next year as part of the NSL 2.0.
Reflecting on her final NPL tournament with Team Bath Amaya commented:
“Representing and co-captaining the U21 team through the NPL tournament was an absolute privilege and achieving a silver medal was a huge achievement – the best Bath U21s have done in several years. We went into the tournament with clear objectives and goals for each game, knowing that we needed to implement them in order to reach the semi finals and finals.
Each and every game was a tough battle but as a team we rose to the challenge, only losing one game in the group stages and narrowly missing out on gold to Loughborough in the final. Our preparation was thorough, with each weekly session having a different focus, allowing us to bank a variety of structures and passages of play to use when it really mattered. It was without a doubt a physically tough tournament, with six 40-minute games across three days with only 1 minute between each quarter and 2 minutes at halftime. A huge test of our fitness. We have had a really successful season as a team and this tournament was a true representation of this and the perfect closure”
Congratulations on a great season from all of us at University of Exeter Sport #bleedgreen!