Jamalco, Waulgrovians in Game-Three decider

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Defending champions Jamalco will be aiming to capture their seventh consecutive Jamaica Netball Association (JNA)/Berger Paints Super League title when they face Waulgrovians 'A' in Game Three of the best-of-three finals series today at the Leila Robinson Courts, starting at 6 p.m.

Jamalco, who trailed 1-0 in series after they were beaten 49-42 by Waulgrovians in the opening game on Thursday, levelled the series at 1-1 on Saturday with an exciting 50-46 victory.

After that win Winston Nevers, coach of the Clarendon-based Jamalco, said his team is very focused and ready to defend its title.

"We are definitely confident of defending our title because we are defending champions and as the defending champions we are not going to go down easily," he said.

Same strategy

"We are going to have the same strategy for Monday's game because whenever you are up, you don't need to do nothing more but to just continue to improve and doing what we have been good at," Nevers said, adding that he was pleased with his team's Game-Two performance.

"It was an excellent game from us, but I think that Waulgrovians played a good game and we have to say congrats to them because they are a championship team," he added.

The first half was evenly contested and the scores were locked at 23-23 at half-time.

However, Jamalco, led by former national goal shooter and captain, Elaine Davis, who sank nine of her game-high 41 goals in the third quarter, stepped up their defence, which led to nine turnovers by Waulgrovians and in the process they outscored them 16-11 to take a decisive 39-34 lead at the end of the period.

It was a ding-dong battle between both teams in the fourth period and despite outscoring Jamalco 11-10, Waulgrovians were unable to pull off the victory.

Captain Marsha Murphy tallied Jamalco's other goals, scoring nine of 14 tries.

Seeking trophy

Christina Solmon, with 27 goals from 29 attempts, and captain Simone Forbes, 19 from 22, were the scorers for Waulgrovians, who are seeking their first hold on the trophy since 2001.

"We just have to take care of the ball and play as a team, and whenever someone makes a mistake it is gone and not dwell on it because I think that this was one of our downfalls in this game," said Forbes, who is also the captain of the national team.

"I think that we made too many errors and what Jamalco did is that they capitalised on our errors," she said. "We also made too many careless mistakes and we need to work on them for Monday because the team that makes the least mistakes is going to win it."

In Saturday's third-place play-off, Windalco defeated Tivoli Gardens 'A' 39-30 to win the third-place trophy. Ann-Kay Smith led the way for Windalco with 18 goals from 26 attempts. She received solid support from Viola Francis, 13 goals from 18 attempts, and Petal Smith - eight goals from 14 tries. Cleopatra Grant, 24 goals from 35 attempts, and Jodi Ann Ffrench six goals from 10 tries, were the scorers for Tivoli Gardens.