When Tash Pavelin and Jayda Pechova refreshed their phones in a gym in late May, waiting for England selection emails to arrive, they found out five minutes apart that both had been chosen for the 2026-27 Vitality Roses programme — putting them in frame for the Commonwealth Games next month. The two have lived together and played side by side in the defensive circle for the past three seasons at Nottingham Forest, and fans have affectionately dubbed them 'Pavlova'. But their partnership is about to face its stiffest test yet: on Saturday, they will contest their team's first-ever Netball Super League semi-final against East Midlands rivals Loughborough Lightning.
For 21-year-old Pechova, the England selection came as a redemptive moment after a bruising year. In 2022, at just 18, she was nominated for the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year and hailed as one of England's brightest prospects. Her first senior cap followed in 2023 against New Zealand. Then the ground shifted beneath her feet. In 2024, after earning a scholarship with Bath University, Team Bath was disbanded as part of a major Netball Super League restructure. Pechova had to pick up her life and move to Nottingham to join the newly established Forest, which meant commuting 300 miles round-trip between Nottingham and Bath to continue her sports management degree.
The toll was real. In 2025, she was dropped from the Roses senior programme and initially overlooked for the Youth World Cup. "It was quite a big shock because I thought I'd had a good season in Super League," Pechova told the BBC Sport. She needed support, and she found it in Chelsea Pitman, Nottingham Forest's coach and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist from 2018. When Pechova messaged Pitman after her England rejection, "she picked me up straight away, we got a coffee and went on a walk," Pechova recalls. Together, they mapped a path forward, identifying the high-performance behaviours and consistency that England needed to see. "She has just attacked it," Pitman said. "She's turning up to every session to put her best foot forward. She is extremely resilient."
The work paid off. Now Pechova is back in contention, and Pavelin and Pechova will need to be at their sharpest Saturday when Forest—in only their second season—face Loughborough, who finished the regular season with an 11-3 record. Forest took fourth place with seven wins from 14 matches, though they beat Loughborough just three weeks ago. The path to the Grand Final on 20 June at Co-op Live in Manchester is steep: winners face the defeated side from the 'major' semi-final between the top two, Manchester Thunder and defending champions London Pulse. Forest are outsiders, but coach Pitman is unfazed. "It is a hard journey, but it's not impossible," she said.
Beyond the semi-final, Pechova has one more milestone awaiting: she will graduate from Bath this summer, having completed a dissertation on the professionalisation of Netball Super League and its effect on player livelihoods—a topic made personal by the restructure that upended her own trajectory. For both players, the 'Pavlova' nickname has become shorthand for something deeper: a recognition of the defensive partnership that has carried them through disruption and back into the frame for England glory.