Grant's goal puts Jamaica into final

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Hosts Trinidad & Tobago kept their hopes alive of a place in the final, but Jamaica secured their place in the gold medal match, when the women's section of the Pan American Hockey Federation Caribbean Hockey Cup continued on Thursday night.

T&T rebounded from their shock 2-1 loss to Jamaica on Wednesday to brush aside Guyana 7-0, while in the day's first encounter, Jamaica continued their surprise showing with a 1-0 win over tournament favourites Barbados.

In the day's first women's encounter, Nicole Grant was the heroine for Jamaica's with the lone goal in the match to put her team in tomorrow's final with maximum six points.

While their men's side have secured a gold medal clash tomorrow, T&T's women will now need to avoid defeat against Barbados today in order to reach the final.

Jamaica play winless Guyana at 10 a.m. on Saturday while T&T and Barbados face off in a 5 p.m. fixture.

impressive victory

T&T's women were led by hat-tricks from Ohio State University's Yesenia Luces and Oire Trotman as they marched towards an impressive victory on Thursday.

Going into the match, T&T knew that a win would keep them in contention, after Jamaica had beaten Barbados in the day's opener.

Luces, one of two overseas-based players in the T&T team, fired in the first goal in the 12th minute before she added field goals in the 22nd and 30th minutes to complete her hat-trick and lead T&T into a 3-0 half-time cushion.

Three minutes after the restart, Trotman got in on the scoring with T&T's fourth before team captain, Stacey Siu Butt extended the lead to 5-0 in the 55th minute.

Trotman then netted two late goals, in the 65th and 69th minute to put the icing on a 7-0 T&T win. T&T and Barbados now have three points after two matches, but the local women have a superior goal difference of plus-six to plus-four.