Janine Claire Ilitch (née Lynch; born 27 January 1972)[1] is an Australian netball player. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in 1993.

Janine Ilitch
Personal information
Full name Janine Claire Ilitch (née Lynch)
Born (1972-01-27) 27 January 1972 (age 52)
Mordialloc
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
University Monash University
Netball career
Playing position(s): GD, GK
Years Club team(s) Apps
Melbourne Phoenix
Melbourne Kestrels
Years National team(s) Caps
1995–2006 Australia 51
Medal record
Representing  Australia
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place 2006 Melbourne Netball
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester Netball
Gold medal – first place 1998 Kuala Lumpur Netball
Netball World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2003 Kingston Netball
Gold medal – first place 1999 Christchurch Netball
Last updated: 2009-03-20

Ilitch was born in Mordialloc, Victoria. She has been a frequent member of the Australian national team, playing in her usual positions of goal keeper and goal defence, since being first selected in 1995. Ilitch has also been a key member of the Melbourne Kestrels in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy ever since the competition's founding in 1997, and served a stint as captain in 2004.

After years of playing second-fiddle to accomplished defenders Kathryn Harby-Williams and Liz Ellis, Ilitch finally cracked the Australian starting-seven in November 2004, where her combination with Australian captain Ellis played a major role in Australia's series victory against New Zealand. This combination was never to reach its true potential, when Ilitch took the 2005 season off due to being pregnant with her second child,[2] and Ellis withdrew from the Australian team with a knee injury upon Ilitch's return. Ilitch won a place in Australia's silver-winning Commonwealth games team in 2006. After playing limited games with the Melbourne Kestrels in the 2006 Commonwealth Bank Trophy season, Ilitch announced her retirement.

References

edit
  1. ^ 2006 Melbourne Kestrels team profile Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2009-03-20.
  2. ^ Lyon, Karen (28 January 2006). "A working mother on the verge of more success". The Age. Retrieved 20 March 2009.