After a tight start and tense first half, TeamBath finally hit their rhythm to defeat Mavericks 61-45 in a thrilling major semi-final in the Netball Superleague.

Match stats

The win, TeamBath's 15th consecutive victory of the season, propels the reigning champions straight into the Grand Final, to be played on June 9 at the Guildford Spectrum Centre.

Mavericks, meanwhile, must regroup before next Saturday's showdown with the winners of the minor semi-final, Loughborough Lightning, who held their nerve to finally edge past Brunel Hurricanes 39-37 in another game which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats.

TeamBath started slowly, allowing the Mavericks midcourt to dictate the pace of the match early on, and with Louisa Brownfield and Jo Harten slotting their opportunities with ease to keep pace with the champions, the first quarter ended 13-12 in Mavericks' favour.

The second period was similarly tense, but TeamBath took a couple of key interceptions, which they were able to convert to lead 27-23 at half-time.

The game turned in the third quarter. Bath started to find their pace and rhythm, despite the close attentions of Mavericks' all court defence.

At 32-28 down, Mavericks turned over the ball in the TeamBath shooting circle, but failed to convert the resulting shooting opportunity, and the champions responded, scoring three goals without response to edge seven goals in front.

Mavericks responded, but a couple of centre court errors were punished by TeamBath, with Cookey and Dunn displaying their customary accuracy.

An eyewatering horrific midcourt collision between Bowers and Harten with two and a half minutes remaining in the period stopped a brief Mavericks revival, and with Debbie Jones replaced less than half a minute later, after a calf injury, the Hatfield side lost focus, to trail by 10 goals at three quarter time.

With Harten now back at GS, Mavericks started brightly in the final period, outscoring the home team 4-1.

However, several umpiring decisions seemed to unsettle the Mavericks team, and with Cookey now using her pace to find space in seemingly impossible positions, the Mavericks defence was rocked.

Bath scored five goals without response midway through the quarter, and with Mentor taking a number of key intercepts, the champions cruised through.

TeamBath Head Coach Jan Crabtree was thrilled with her team's work: "I'm definitely pleased with our performance overall, and our attacking end was particularly good today.

"Our aim is to retain the title, and it was important that we were in contention in the Grand Final - we're ready for it."

Meanwhile, for Mavericks' coach Maggie Jackson, the focus is now on next weekend's play off against Loughborough Lightning: "Our match lasted for 30 minutes. For the first 15 we played well, at 30 minutes we were still competing. At 45 we were in with a chance.

"But unfortunately netball is a game of 60 minutes! We know we have the ability, but now need to work on maintaining that level throughout the game."

Starting line ups:
TeamBath: GS Rachel Dunn, GA Pamela Cookey, WA Tamsin Greenway, C Jo Binns, WD Sara Bayman, GD Billy Bowers, GK Geva Mentor
Changes: 3rd Q: WD Natalie Seaton, 4th Q: Bayman to C

Mavericks: GS Jo Harten, GA Louisa Brownfield, WA Karen Atkinson, C Deb Jones, WD Naomi Siddall, GD Amanda Newton, GK Janet Coulburne
Changes: 3rd Q: Brownfield to GS, Harten to GA (switched back after injury t/o), Atkinson to C (after injury t/o), WA Holly Nicholls (after injury t/o)

Shooting statistics:
TeamBath: Cookey 30/36 - 83%, Dunn 31/36 - 86%
Mavericks: Brownfield 26/28 - 93%, Harten 19/27 - 70%

Umpires: Jo Kelly and Chris Wilson Smith