Sunshine Girls look to hit back

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's Sunshine Girls will be aiming to level their best-of-three series against top-ranked Australia when both teams meet in the second match in Sydney tomorrow starting at 4:30 a.m. (Jamaica time).

The Sunshine Girls trail 1-0 in the series following their 59-38 defeat at the hands of the Australians in their opening match on Sunday in Melbourne.

Jamaica's coach, Connie Francis, said she is expecting a much better performance from her girls because they have worked very hard in training after the defeat in game one.

"We just have to do a better job shooting the ball and taking care of the ball whenever we are in possession of it," said Francis. "I think that we can definitely level the series, because we have done a better job than our opponents rebounding the ball and getting second shots in game one," Francis said.

"We were also much quicker to the ball than them in the first two quarters, and if we can keep this up for the entire game, I believe that we should come out on top," she said.

Francis added: "However, we can't be making 37 turnovers against a top-ranked team like Australia and still expect to win."

Goal shooter Romelda Aiken was the leading shooter for the Jamaicans, with 27 goals from 36, but according to Francis, she would be hoping for a better performance from her ace shooter.

"We are expecting a lot more goals from Romelda because I thought she could have done a lot better for us," said Francis.

Changed shooting style

She said that Aiken had also changed her shooting style but the main challenge she was facing is the fact that she was playing with two new goal attacks and they were yet to develop good chemistry. These two players, Anna-Kay Griffith and Vanessa Walker, scored seven and four goals, respectively, in the opening game.

Meanwhile, Francis' opposite, Norma Plummer, told the Australian media that they would not be taking the Jamaicans lightly.

Plummer said the Jamaicans boasted their strongest team when they met Australia last October, but on this tour are missing some of their stars, including captain and goal attack Simone Forbes, "a really smart player''.