Junior Girls battle England at UTech

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's junior netballers will face England's Under-19 team in today's opening match of their four-match series at the University of Technology (UTech), starting at 6 p.m.

The second match in the series will be played tomorrow, the third on August 23, followed by the final game on August 24. The last three matches will be played at the G.C. Foster College in St Catherine.

C. Lloyd Walker, the junior Sunshine Girls' coach, expects a competitive and tough series.

"We are going into these games very positively and hope that the girls will give a good account of themselves against the English," he said.

"We have some girls with good potential, and with the right attitude we should be able to make it a very competitive series."

Walker also noted that they have selected 17 players for the series, but the squad will be cut to 12 on match days.

"The players that have been selected are among the best in the island at their age group," said Walker, whose team won the bronze at the last World Youth Championships, which was held in the Cook Islands in 2009.

Deneen Taylor and Vangelee Williams, who represented Windalco in the Berger Paints Super League, along with Khadijah Williams, who plays for Waulgrovians A, are three of the island's most outstanding junior players and they have been drafted in for the series by Walker.

They are joined by Chrishena Copeland, Antoinette Stone, Shade Ffrench and Vanessa Jones, who have all represented the country at the Under-16 level.

Expecting tough battle

Meanwhile, England's coach Colette Thompson said they are also expecting a very tough battle with the local girls.

"We are really looking forward to this series because we know that Jamaica have said that they have a few scores to settle after their seniors' performance at the World Championships, and so we know that we are going to have a battle on our hands," said Thompson.

"However, we are hoping to put out some good performances to be able to execute some of the things that we have been practising back home against tougher opposition," she said.

Thompson added: "We are playing well at the moment. We know that Jamaica have some very talented athletes and they are also very organised, but we are hoping that we can pull off a victory."