Jamaica off to winning start at AFNA

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC):

Defending champions Jamaica, hosts St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), and highly fancied Trinidad and Tobago all logged easy victories as the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) tournament started Sunday.

Jamaica's Sunshine Girls made light work of St Lucia, 54-21, SVG beat Canada 51-30, and T&T got the better of Barbados 49-36 at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex.

The World No. 4-ranked Jamaicans, clear tournament favourites, got off to a slow start but were able to increase the momentum with sustained pressure on their opponents to record a lopsided victory.

Accelerated

The Sunshine Girls stepped on the accelerator in the second quarter with a 19-4 run that set up the easy win.

Jamaica led the quarters 6-5, 25-9, and 40-18, en route to their 33-goal triumph.

Goal attack Christina Solmon dwarfed her markers with well-timed jumps and clinical finishing to give her team full control before halftime.

She got good support from Vanessa Walker, who replaced Crystal Gordon midway in the second quarter.

The combination pressured St Lucia's defence, which had no answer to their offence.

Solmon ended with 22 goals from 27 attempts, backed up by Gordon (12/14) and Walker (20/28).

For St Lucia, goal shooter Barbara Theobalds shot 8/11 and goal attack Shem Maxwell 13/17.

Annett Daley, assistant coach of Jamaica, said the team played below expectation.

"We weren't satisfied with how we played in the first period, because I think the youngsters were a bit nervous," said Daley.

"However, the girls put themselves together for the remaining three-quarters of the game and we were able to come away with an easy victory," she said.

Jamaica will tackle host SVG in their third match tonight.

In the tournament's first match, SVG soundly whipped Canada in front of a fair-size crowd.

Dominant

SVG were dominant in spite of being hampered by the loss of centre Saska Diamond, who went down with an upset stomach and had to be replaced after vomiting on court, resulting in play being held up for five minutes, while the court was cleaned.

From quarterly leads of 10-7, 27-11, and 42-19, SVG went on to register a 21-goal victory although they suffered some anxious moments as the Canadians were able to breach their defence with regularity.

In the final period, the home team consolidated their lead with captain and ace shooter Skiddy Francis-Crick being replaced by Joanna Christopher in the shooting circle.

Francis-Crick had 29/32, while Nicole Sandy (1/3), Leeana Lewis (13/15) and Christopher (8/9) were the other scorers.

For Canada, shooter Sabrina Versteeg had 6/14 and goal attack Marilyn Hope 24/38.

In the evening's other match Trinidad and Tobago overcame early spunk by Barbados to secure a 13-goal win.

T&T led the quarters 13-10, 26-20, 39-28.