Despite a riveting victory over the highly ranked Dandenong Rangers a fortnight ago, the Ballarat Rush find itself with its backs to the wall in the last week of the SEABL home and away season.
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After going into last weekend’s bye sitting comfortably in fourth place in the east conference, the Rush’s finals place was thrown into jeopardy as the Bendigo Lady Braves made a charge up the table with impressive wins against finals prospects Hobart and Brisbane.
The results mean the Ballarat outfit will need to rely on either Bendigo or Brisbane losing their final round of the season, while also ensuring they take all of the points from their two fixtures.
The challenge will start on Saturday night when the Rush make the trip down the Midland Highway to face Geelong.
While the Rush was able to get the better of the Lady Supercats at the Minerdome in round 13, Geelong has firmly entrenched itself at the pointy end of the south conference and will have one eye on the finals.
Rush co-captain Kristy Rinaldi said while it would have been nice to have cemented a finals berth earlier in the season, a number a close losses earlier in the season meant the Rush needed to prove they were finals material.
"This is my 11th year in the competition and I can’t remember it ever being this tight,” Rinaldi said.
“At the end of the day we’ve put ourselves in this position and it’s come down to the last two games of the season, so we desperately need to win at Geelong and hopefully either Bendigo or Brisbane can drop a game.”
Rinaldi was confident she would be able to take to the floor for the critical clash after sitting out against Dandenong with injury.
Should the Rush be successful against the Lady Supercats, it will still need to overcome Canberra at home on Sunday afternoon.
While the Capitals have had a lacklustre season, the importance of the fixture means the Rush will not be taking its opposition lightly.
“This is what we play for, and we really want to play finals,” Rinaldi said.
“We’ve got nothing to lose and we’ve got to leave it all out on the court.”