Surrey Storm edge out London Pulse

Quarter one began with a flurry of goals from Surrey Storm, who capitalised on errors from Pulse to gain an early lead, before Lefebre Rademan opened the account for Pulse and scored her first goal in the Vitality Netball Superleague. Pressure from Storm allowed them to extend their lead to 7-1 and Pulse's attack struggled to connect. Emma Magee left the court due to an injury after five minutes, and Sophie Kelly replaced her at GA.

It was six minutes into the match when Pulse scored their second goal of the game. As the quarter progressed, Pulse began to find their connections and a miscommunication from Storm meant Pulse could capitalise through Burger. Storm maintained their lead though with a couple of shots not landing for Pulse and went into the first break with 12 goals to Pulse’s eight.

The second quarter saw Storm maintain their flow in attack and move the ball quickly. There were a few errors from both sides, although Parsons was able to take control of the game for Storm and find the circle edge easily. Adio took an intercept but Storm still had the advantage with 16 goals to 10.

Pulse opted for a switch with Rademan replaced by Rothwell at GA but Storm maintained a six-goal advantage. The introduction of Funmi Fadoju into GD forced a Storm turnover and Pulse equalised with two minutes to go in the half and Storm responded by bringing on Felisitus Kwangwa for her Vitality Netball Superleague debut. A breaking call gave Storm a three-goal run but Pulse scored just before the half time whistle, closing the gap to two.

There weren't any changes for either side at the start of the third quarter and both teams converted their first centre passes after the break. The two-goal difference remained and both teams were playing with physicality and hustling for ball. The game see-sawed as Fadoju stole the ball but it was handed back to Priest who took the intercept up the other end.

Pulse made several changes, bringing Keable back on, while Fadoju moved in to WD and Drayne came on at C. With five minutes left in the quarter, Pulse brought the score back level and then managed to capitalise on a Storm held ball to pull ahead by two.

Storm weren’t backing down though and they levelled the scores again but Pulse had the narrowest advantage going into the final break with just one goal separating the sides.

In the final quarter Pulse took their lead out to 35-32 but Storm fought back to level with six minutes to go. Storm’s defence managed to gain possession and Kelly took control of the Storm attack to put them back in the lead and they were up by three goals with three minutes remaining.

In the final minute Pulse were two behind with the centre pass but a spilled ball over the back line meant they missed the opportunity to close the gap. Thanks to an intercept from Keable with just 40 seconds left Pulse were one behind, but Storm were careful with possession and finished with a goal on the final whistle through Kelly.

Vitality Player of the Match: Sophie Kelly (Surrey Storm)

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Match report from London Pulse