BALLARAT Pride has two weeks to regroup before making its next attempt to get its first win on the board in Victorian Netball League championship division.
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Federation University Ballarat Pride ended the first bracket of games for the season with a 28-goal loss to Monash University Storm at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Wednesday night.
This leaves Pride on the bottom of the ladder as the only team without a win after five rounds.
Ballarat was no match for Storm,
Pride was again found wanting early, trailing by seven goals at quarter time and then 10 at the main break.
Worse was to come though as Ballarat lost its focus and allowed Monash to dictate play.
Coach Jo Dash said Monash finished its work much better and the longer the game went, the more confident it became.
"It left us chasing.
"We need to learn to let the ball go, drive hard and pick ourselves up after errors," she said.
Dash said physical pressure must become a feature of Pride's game if it was to start having more of an impact on the scoreboard across four quarters.
Pride administrator Jordan O'Keefe said it was unfortunate to go away from games sounding repetitious.
"We make no excuses for lacking in performance.
"However, the reality is (a lack of) size and physical strength player-to-player means an uneven match-up across the board in this competition week-to-week.
"The height and bigger bodies Pride comes up against have an immediate effect on the outcome".
O'Keefe said despite this, Pride players literally needed to pick themselves up quicker in these contests and get on with the job at hand.
Ballarat also lost in division one and 19/under games.
Pride's next game is against Peninsula Waves on Wednesday, March 19.
ROUND 5
CHAMPIONSHIP
Monash Uni 17 32 53 68
Ballarat 11 22 31 40
Shooting: details not available
DIVISION ONE: Monash Uni 58 d Ballarat 38 (shooting details not available)
19/UNDER: Monash Uni 43 d Ballarat 31 (Katharine Dickie 28/35, Ruby Rose Parry 2/3, Hayley Fidler 1/2)