Lightning take positives from Fever loss

Sunshine Coast Lightning suffered a second one-goal loss to West Coast Fever this season but coach Noeline Taurua feels her Super Netball team is beginning to click.

Fever beat the defending champions Lightning by a solitary goal when they prevailed 59-58 at HBF Stadium in Perth on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the standings.

It was a significant result for both clubs with West Coast moving nine points clear of the second-placed Melbourne Vixens and remaining unbeaten in Perth.

While there was a lot to like about the performance of the Lightning, they remain outside a finals position by a point.

Two games decided by a combined two goals suggests there is little to separate Sunshine Coast and West Coast despite their relative ladder positions.

Taurua is happier with the way the Lightning are playing but knows that being able to match the top teams won't matter unless they make the finals, with their next two games against the out of contention Collingwood Magpies and Adelaide Thunderbirds.

"We are the team that has got the closest to them (Fever) at the moment and that's pretty good, but it won't be good unless you make the top four," Taurua said.

"It's only been in the last couple of games that I feel like we are just starting to push ourselves through.

"Prior to that we did lose and lost big quarters by five or six, and sometimes 10.

"The positive is we were able to chase back but against good teams we can't afford to do that.

"We're no longer losing quarters by how we were before and we are creeping in there, but it's getting tight at the top."

Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich couldn't be happier with the wins against the Thunderbirds, Magpies and now Lightning since a 14-goal loss in Melbourne to the Vixens.

But she knows nothing is guaranteed before their road trip to face the NSW Swifts.

"I wish it did (mean something) but not at all," she said.

"With the points system now it just takes one team to get an eight-pointer and everything moves around.

"We just have to be really focused on us.

"We can't control what everyone else does and we just have to keep honing in on how we want to play, and keep backing it up.

"We also need to find our next level."