Round 4: UC Capitals go rural for Boomers matchup

Continuing their annual rural rivalry, the UC Capitals are making the trip down to Gippsland Stadium for their highly anticipated match against ladder leaders the Melbourne Boomers.

The Caps have spent the week addressing areas of improvement from their first away trip and Nicole Munger says the team’s attention has been more on themselves instead of their next opponent.

“A lot that we’ve been focusing on this week is just us and being consistent with our principals… We have just really been going at it just pushing each other, trying to push to make each other better,” she said.

On Sunday, co-captain, Jade Melbourne, will once again get the opportunity to play in front of her home crowd of Traralgon, and hopefully earn the Caps their first win of the season.

Jade is coming off the back of an impressive round three performance, after dropping 45 points, 22 assists and 10 rebounds across two games, earning her a spot in the WNBL Team of the Round. She now leads the league for average assists and sits in the top five for average points per game.

The Boomers remain undefeated going into round four, despite still missing WNBA star and co-captain Kristy Wallace as she recovers from knee surgery.

It’s a new look Melbourne side compared to last time these teams met, with the Boomers retaining just two players from last season roster in Wallace and Penina Davidson.

They’ve had some big additions join the team, including Sara Blicavs, Aimie Rocci, Keely Froling, and American imports Jordin Canada and Naz Hillmon.

Canada was also named in the round three Team of the Week when she posted 26 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists in the Boomers two-point victory over Bendigo Spirit.

While there is firepower in Melbourne’s new lineup, Munger and the Caps know that anyone has the potential to win games this season and are excited to show fans what they’ve got.

“We do think we have some good match ups [against Melbourne], we really like to create chaos on defence, and offence, but hopefully we can just create chaos on the court and just stun them,” Munger said.

The Caps have embraced their spot as the underdogs and are looking forward to putting their best foot forward going into the rest of the season.

“We’re going to face a lot of different things in this game, and throughout the whole year, but if we can keep our principals, keep our communication, make ourselves better and be versatile for anything, then when we get out there it should be pretty good.”