THEY have proven they can set the tempo time and time again, but on Saturday Collegians Mystified also proved they can find composure when under pressure.
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It was that quality which kept Collegians' Bathurst Netball Association A grade title hopes alive with a 38-28 victory over Bulldogs Verdelho in the preliminary final.
Collegians went into the contest as the hot favourites, but it was Bulldogs who began the match the stronger of the pair.
With experienced goal attack Alisha Glasgow spurring her side on down one end of the court and goal keeper Kate Burns rebounding well and forcing turnovers down the other, Bulldogs zipped out to an 8-3 lead.
But by quarter-time Collegians had pulled the advantage back to 8-7 and 79 seconds into the second period they led for the first time.
Though Bulldogs continued to test the defending premiers, Collegians pulled away to book a spot in the grand final alongside Panthers A grade.
Collegians coach Melissa Noonan admitted she was nervous early on before her side settled.
"It's a very rare thing for that to happen, last week we were four goals down, so full credit to Bulldogs," she said.
"We just said 'One goal at a time' that's all we needed to do. Obviously when we got the five goals down, we then got it back to within one at the break.
"That was okay, but we knew we needed to build on that. Then at half-time I told them 'Okay, you're up, just keep fighting,' and they did that.
"It was a bit hard when you have to take two defenders off due to injury, that's never a good sign, but they had a bit of rest and ice, fired up, and got back out there in the last."
It was in the back end of the second quarter - after the game had been locked at 13-all - that Collegians began to open up a handy buffer over Bulldogs.
They scored 10 goals to five for the quarter to lead 17-13 at half-time.
In the third quarter strong shooting from Collegians goal attack Pearl Grimmett pushed the margin out to seven goals, but Bulldogs produced the last two scoring shots of the quarter to keep their hopes alive at 27-22.
But that's as close as it got.
With goal defence Teagan Germech producing a string of turnovers and the speed and agility of wing attack Kate Fallon providing the Collegians shooters with plenty of ball, they went on with the job.
"They definitely feel the pressure, as does their coach," Noonan laughed.
"I think I'm lucky that they did find their composure there and worked their way into the game. There were still a fair few errors, so we have to sort that out."