Jamaica's Under-21 and the visiting Australia Under-21 netballers suffered defeats yesterday in their warm-up matches to Super League champions Jamalco and Tivoli Gardens, respectively, at the G.C. Foster College.
Both sides were using the matches as part of their preparations, for the opening match of their three-Test series, which begins tomorrow at the same venue starting at 6 p.m.
In the opening match of the double-header, the junior Sunshine Girls were edged 37-36 by former Super League champions Tivoli Gardens. The Australians went down 45-41 to Jamalco.
The Jamaicans who entered the match without top goal shooter Christina Solmon, who was given the day off by the coaching staff, trailed their opponents by six goals at half-time at (18-12). The Sylvester Campbell-coached Tivoli Gardens extended their lead by one at the end of the third period at 29-22.
hung on for victory
However, the junior Sunshine then rallied strongly in the fourth period through goal shooter Crystal Gordon, who sank six of her team-high 18 goals to cut the deficit to two with less than a minute remaining, but Tivoli Gardens held the nerves in the final moments and hang on for the victory.
Gordon received solid support from Jhaniele Fowler -
Patricia Chambers 25 goals from 28 attempts and Neressa Gibbs six goals from eight tires were the leading scorers for Tivoli Gardens.
C'Lloyd Walker, coach of the young Sunshine Girls, said his team still has a few things to work on before the start of the series.
"I think we had a lot more ball possession than the Tivoli (Gardens) team but our shooting was not as good as we were hoping it would be and I think we have some work to do in this area ahead of Monday's game," said Walker.
Meanwhile Simone McKinnis, coach of Australia, said: "It was a really tough game but it was also a good game for us because it was the sort of game that we needed as part of our preparations for the game on Monday.
"I think at times we played well and at times we had lapses where we didn't played well and we will be looking at these faults going into this series against the Jamaicans.