After months of training the time has finally arrived and the Western Netball team will be stepping out on the court for the first time this weekend (28-29 March) for the opening of the Lois Muir Challenge 2009.

The Lois Muir Challenge, like the ANZ Championships, started last year as a tier below the professional compeition and is a critical pathway for New Zealand players to have the opportunity to move up to the next level.

The opening weekend of the Challenge will commence at Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua, on Saturday morning with Western facing off against 2008 Runners-Up, Bay of Plenty, for the first match of the tournament.

Then on Saturday afternoon Western will play North at 1.30pm in what should be a highly competitive game. Western's weekend will be completed when they face Waikato on the Sunday at 11.30am.

The team are thrilled to be finally taking the court, as after months of preperation they have something to prove. Head Coach, Nicole Dryden says "These girls have been working hard since January, and they will be highly competitive at this level of Netball, we are looking forward to achieving some great results!"

Western fans will get the chance to support their team as Western hosts a match versus Cook Strait (a collaboration of Wellington and Tasman) at Arena Manawatu, in Palmerston North on April 5th.

The competition will then head to Dunedin for the weekend of 18-19th April and will finish in Rotorua on the 25th-26th of April.

All fixtures and results can be viewed on the Western Netball results page.