"definitely that's what I like to play when I'm playing standard - I want to be able to bid diamonds because bidding good suits is important in bridge" - Meckstroth's opinion on weak 2 diamond
Yes a spade to the 9 would have been sensible.
Here's the actual layout.
3NT-1 was actually a bottom so far, as most had made 9 tricks and the other two who did not were in 2NT.
2♠ would not have been much better.
There is a 10th trick available in NT although nobody had yet found it when we played the hand.