THE Lakeside Lightning women always knew it was going to be tough to replicate the success of 2014 this season after losing their three top scorers, captain and then import Christian Shelter in the second game of 2015, but there was a sense of relief following last Saturday night's win over the Perth Redbacks.

The Lightning had an outstanding 2014 season finishing in second position on the standings with a 19-3 record to be four games clear of the third place Joondalup Wolves, and they then entered the grand final on a 13-game winning streak after sweeping the quarter and semi finals.

While Lakeside lost the grand final in a spirited contest to the Rockingham Flames, it was a tremendous 2014 for the Lightning but 2015 was always going to be a rebuilding year after the departures of Kari Pickens, Emily Fielding, Krystal Stoneking and captain Jess Van Schie.

The Lightning's import for 2015 Christian Shelter started the season well with 15 points and 11 rebounds against the Cockburn Cougars, but then went down injured 24 hours later against the South West Slammers and had her season ended.

And Lakeside ended up losing its opening nine games of the season but some of those saw them either narrow come up short after strong showings or being just overrun after leading for much of the contest, including against the Stirling Senators, Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Mandurah Magic.

But last Saturday night at Curtin Stadium, the Lightning broke through for a 66-57 win over the Perth Redbacks with Ashleigh Grant leading the way with 29 points while Courtney Byrnes added 15, Megan Craig seven and Tia Ucich six.

While the Lightning are now firmly focused on this Friday night's clash at home to the Mandurah Magic to try and get another win, coach Darren Nash and his players made sure they enjoyed their breakthrough win over the Redbacks as reward for their hard work with a young team.

"Obviously a win at this stage is pretty exciting and they had to sing the victory song, which I think most of them had forgotten but they were pretty happy to get the cobwebs out of that one for sure," Nash said on SBL Slam on 98five Sonshine FM.

"We definitely feel like we are improving every week. Last year was obviously a pretty decent team and this year we've come back and lost our import three minutes into the second game. We've got four girls who have never played SBL before and then girls who have played limited minutes, and Ash and Courtney who have played a fair bit.

"Courtney is the only person who has ever started a full season in the SBL so we knew it was going to be pretty bumpy, but in every game they have improved.

"We would have liked the defence to improve as fast as the offence has because we have been scoring better the last couple of games, but the defensive focus came in this week and they switched on with the rotations and without lapses. They are starting to put it together more consistently throughout the game and that's where we are at."

Losing the team's top three scorers from last season Pickens, Fielding and Stoneking as well as inspirational captain Van Schie was always going to mean it was a year that things could take a while for things to click for the lightning but they have placed the faith in the continued development of their emerging players.

One of those is Ashleigh Grant who has become a real leader on the team despite celebrating her 18th birthday this Friday night.

While Megan Craig has now come on board giving the Lightning a true big target inside over the past five weeks, and is settling into the team with her teammates working out how to get the best out of her strengths.

"The other thing is Megan came to the team and Lakeside has never really known what to do with bigs, we've always been small, so that took three or four weeks to start working out that there is space above someone's shoulders and they have started to use her a lot better," Nash said.

"Ash is surprising. In one of her rookie years we chucked her on and she hit 16 points in about four minutes, she can be very explosive. Considering how young she is, she's still learning and she knows she makes mistakes during games, but she makes up for it and she works hard. As she does it more and more, it seems that she's making better decisions all the time."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin