Alice Harvey warns "never underestimate a Lightning bounce back" ahead of Grand Final

Alice Harvey warned London Pulse that her Loughborough Lightning side can never be written off after the East Midlanders booked their place in Sunday’s Netball Super League Grand Final.

In a repeat of last year’s showpiece, the two-time defending champions overcame Manchester Thunder 69-57 in the preliminary final having found themselves seven points down after the first quarter.

But the team who finished second in the table during the regular season rallied superbly, through an attack led by Samantha Wallace-Joseph, to lead 37-30 at half-time.

Thunder were unable to regroup after seeing a 14-point swing go against them as three-peat chasing Lightning managed the game maturely during the final two quarters to claim the win.

It means Vic Burgess’ team will take on Pulse – in a repeat of the 2023 Grand Final, which Lightning won 57-48 – at the O2 Arena on July 6, aiming to avenge their 50-49 major semi-final loss.

And Harvey, who was named Player of the Match, knows her team are capable of winning from any position.

“It means so much, last week’s loss hurt, and I think we felt that in training this week. That was a performance we were proud of,” she said.

“It wasn’t always easy, we showed grit and that is a performance that Loughborough wants to show. We are really proud of that. 

“Last week was a position where it was ours to lose and we lost it, but it was different today. Never underestimate a Lightning bounce back, we are very good at that, we took individual accountability, collective accountability, we have worked really hard this week to right the wrongs.

“We really want to do the three-peat and this week’s performance showed that.”

The Grand Final will see the league’s top two sides collide for a fourth time this season, with Pulse leading the head-to-head record 2-1.

The league leaders won 77-51 at the Sir David Wallace Arena in March before Lightning returned the favour in May, winning away at the Copper Box Arena 58-53.

And with only one point separating the two sides when they met 10 days ago, the showpiece is set to be a close and thrilling encounter.

Hannah Joseph is keenly aware her side are on the cusp of a historic third consecutive title and is burning with desire to get the job done.

“We set out at the start of the season wanting to get to that Grand Final, so we’re just so pleased we’ve done it,” she said.

“Off the back of last week and losing in the major semi-final it gave us a real fight coming into this game, we knew we were going to put everything out there to get to the final. 

“We want to win three in a row, we named that at the start of the season. It is exciting that we get to play Pulse again, for the fourth time, it is not often you get to play another team four times.

“We know where we can fix up from last time, we have got loads of evidence of where we can be better.”