Ruislip started brightly but were soon rocked by an injury to influential back court player Lenka Kocisova and this interrupted their flow.
Both defences were strong and Ida Griffith was in fine form in goal for Great Dane, keeping out the Eagles attack.
At half time the Eagles had a narrow lead of just three goals, and Coach Mel Chowns was unhappy with the finishing of her squad as too many chances went begging.
Great Dane came out fighting in the second half and soon levelled the scores. Further incident happened though when Danes Anne Kandler took another hit and went off for a period - and without her influence the Eagles pulled away again and built up a five-goal lead.
But when Kandler returned Great Dane clawed back to within two goals before a two-minute suspension - thanks to the sending off of the Danes coach - eased the pressure on Eagles and they saw out the match to take the match 18 - 16.
But the match took its toll on both squads though with Kandler struggling at the final whistle and Sposi and Papenfuss for Eagles joining Kocisova with injuries.
The Eagles had to regroup for the match against Cambridge 24 hours later, and it was a very different team that lined up. Without either of their recognised goalkeepers, Kocisova bravely agreed to go in goal as she wasn't able to play on court, and without several of the players who saw off Great Dane, Ruislip had just seven players plus coach Chowns on standby if needed.
Ruislip built up a comfortable lead in the first 15 minutes but Cambridge, with some bright young British talent in their team, did not give up and kept within touching distance in the first half.
However, in the second half Ruislip stepped up the pace and pulled away with some great fast breaking from Telek and some great heroics from Kocisova in goal.
Coach Chowns got a 15-minute run, turning back the clock 10 years and even getting on the scoresheet with a shot from the left wing.
Ruislip can now head into the festive period happy with their start and looking forward to resuming battle and meeting rising team Deva.
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