The two top teams Western Zeniths and Capital Force battled it out in the fifth round of the Digicel Punjas Netball Super League competition at the National Netball Centre in Suva yesterday.

The Capital Force came out strong as they led all quarters of the game to run away with a 52-40 win.

Speaking to SUNsports Western Zeniths manager Lo Raevuevu said five of their players could not train with them due to their commitments with the Baby Pearls.

“This affected our performance,” she said.

However, Raevuevu said this would not be the end of the team as they would make a comeback next week.

“We are hoping if our Fiji Under-20 reps could just get one day to train together with team as they would be able to get back to that game they were playing.  We will give them a tougher run next week. We will come back fighting.

“They tried their best but the better team won. With our group, there are mainly young girls and this showed in the court that some of the moves and talents in the court were just superb. Most of them are new and are playing for first time in the series. We are looking forward to the game this week and we are going to work on narrowing the margin that we had today,” she said.

Capital Force coach Vasiti Vugakoto said, they treated the game like it was the final as they were playing against the other top teams of the competition.

“We were on the edge of our seats from the first to the last quarter. Today’s win was a dream because we are the defending champions but then again we never underestimate any other team. We wanted to win, we prepared but we always respect our opponents.

“We are unbeaten at the moment but we don’t know what the other teams have under their sleeves. We will prepare because we would like to win again as defending champions,” she added.