MERRIWA Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves coach Vlad Alava understands what his team needs to do to beat the Willetton Tigers to advance to a second women's SBL grand final in three years, but that doesn’t mean he expects it to be easy.

The Wolves weren’t far off the top two teams in the women's SBL throughout the regular season, but ended up in third position and then were able to beat the South West Slammers in two games in the quarter finals.

That sets up a semi-final match up with a Willetton team that only missed out on the minor premiership by one solitary point before the Tigers went on to book a place in the next round by winning their quarter-final series over the Perry Lakes Hawks in two games.

That now leads to what should be a terrific semi-final match up starting with Game 1 on Saturday night at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

With plenty of stars on either side with the Wolves led by Rebecca Mercer, Nikita-Lee Martin, Shani Amos, Casey Lockwood and Antonia Edmondson, and the Tigers by Louella Tomlinson, Kate Malpass, Ebony Antonio, Zoe Harper and Lisa Wallbutton, Alava is even looking forward to seeing the series as coach.

However, he is confident that the Lady Wolfpack can learn the lessons from the two losses to the Tigers during the regular season to give them a chance to reach the grand final, and try to win a second championship in the women's SBL in the last three years.

"The Tigers are a classy team with a terrific balance of experience, size and skill. We again need to lift our standards if we are to turn results in our favour in this series," Alava said.

"We will be going in as underdogs in this series with Willetton having beaten us in our two regular season games and I think our girls will be up for the challenge. We have improved our level of play as the season has progressed and I know the team is looking forward to the challenge.

"We understand what is required to beat classy teams like the Tigers and nothing less than consistently high standard of basketball on both ends of the floor will get it done- always easier said than done.

"At this stage of the season, it's a simple case of get it done, or go home. If both teams play to potential, I think you will see a very entertaining series."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene-Elise Photography