Sunshine Girls place fourth at FastNet

• Jamaica's Bryan grabs Player of the Series award

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's Sunshine Girls suffered consecutive defeats to New Zealand and Australia to cap off what was an otherwise encouraging campaign in the FastNet competition, The World Netball Series 2011, which concluded at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, over the weekend.

Jamaica finished fourth in the competition that England won by defeating defending champions New Zealand 33-26.

Despite the disappointing end to the tournament, Jamaica Netball Association President Marva Bernard was encouraged by the team's performance.

"We came here with a young side of average age 21 and they gave a good account of themselves. They made us proud," she said.

"We are rebuilding our team and the future looks good. We can see what we need and what we need to do. They were brilliant," she added.

As if to support Bernard's assessment, the organisers named captain Nadine Bryan Player of the Series.

Victory denied

The Jamaican women went down 29-30 to New Zealand and then 24-32 to Australia to finish fourth in the tournament. The Jamaicans finished with a record of four wins and three losses, with two of those wins coming against the winners England and runners-up New Zealand.

The Jamaicans, fielding a relatively inexperienced team, had advanced to yesterday's semi-finals coming off three straight wins on Saturday over New Zealand, Fiji and England, respectively. This after starting off the tournament by losing to Australia and then defeating South Africa on the first day of the competition.

However, despite a brave performance against New Zealand where the women led 12-10 at half-time, the Jamaican squad lost 29-30.

Before a crowd that featured a strong contingent of Jamaican supporters, Jamaica started Patricia McCalla, Bryan, Vanessa Walker, Jhaniele Fowler, Vangelee Williams and Malysha Kelly.

According to Bernard, the team fought hard to defend their two-point half-time lead, but by the end of the power play, New Zealand had managed to gain the ascendancy, achieving a four-point swing to lead 24-22. The Jamaicans tried to claw their way back, but fell one point short as time expired.

Against Australia, the starting line-up saw Tracy Ann Robinson, Anna Kay Griffiths, Kelly, McCalla, Bryan and Fowler take the floor against the Austra-lians, who were earlier upset by England 17-27.

The Australians came out firing and despite the best efforts of the Sunshine Girl defenders, led 8-6 at the end of the first and 14-10 at the half. On the resumption, the Australians extended their lead by eight points to lead 24-16.