Queen's, Denbigh take netball titles

THE Queen's School and Denbigh High are still celebrating after they were crowned national schoolgirls junior and senior champions respectively at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday.

Queen's successfully defended their title handing out a netball lesson to Holmwood in the junior final with a 33-20 victory.

In the senior final it was a much closer affair as Denbigh held on for a 24-21 win over St Hugh's High.

Holmwood made a flying start as they became the first team to lead Queen's this season as they were up 3-1 after three minutes. However, Queen's soon hit back and the scores were tied 6-6 at the end of the first quarter.

With centre Keleisha Hutchinson controlling the game well, urban champions Queen's came into their own during the second quarter as goal shooter Sade French and Khadijah Williams were unstoppable as they led their team to a 15-11 lead at half-time.

The winners increased that lead to 22-15 after three quarters and for the remainder of the game the Queen's players showed superior skill, forcing their opponents to make several unforced errors.

French led all scorers with 27 from 33 attempts with Williams getting six from 12.

Centre Hutchinson was named most valuable player (MVP) for the juniors.

Overjoyed

Coach Marvette Anderson was overjoyed.

"I am very happy for the girls and I cannot find words to describe that happiness as they have worked hard all season and deserve this victory and only losing one game in four years is a true testimony to their success," said Anderson who is also the National Under 21 assistant coach.

In the senior final both teams were very guilty of several turnovers. Denbigh led 7-5 at the end of the first quarter and the scores were locked a 11-11 at half time.

Both teams continued to make mistakes for the remainder of the game as they found it very difficult to score several easy chances. Urban champions St Hugh's were especially let down by errors from goal shooter Chiquana Reid.

Denbigh with their host of supporters spurring them on used that to their advantage and looked the team which wanted it most as they held on to their close 24-21 win.

Winning coach Christine Bartley was very elated with her team's success.

"This victory is sweet as the girls played according to plan and despite looking a bit nervous at the start they held their own at the end as I reminded them that the last time we won an all-island title was at the same venue in 2006 when we defeated St Andrew High and most of the players were on that team," said Bartley.