St Hugh's, St Andrew net titles

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

St Hugh's High's juniors and St Andrew High's seniors crowned themselves in glory yesterday at the Leila Robinson courts, as they captured the top prize in the Corporate Area schoolgirl netball competition, after easy victories in their respective finals.

It was an unlucky St Catherine High who came out on the losing end, as their junior team was beaten 31-21 by St Hugh's High, before their seniors suffered a 30-20 defeat to St Andrew High.

In the junior finals, St Catherine came out the more positive team and led 12-5 and 17-13, respectively, after the first two quarters. However, things changed in the final two quarters as St Hugh's lanky goal shooter Kadien Duhaney used her height to great advantage. She could not be contained as she scored all of her team's 31 points from 39 attempts. St Catherine High goal shooter Jamila Tulloch, with 14 goals from 23 attempts, top-scored for her team.

Deflated team

Following their junior team defeat, St Catherine High seniors came out very negative at the start of their encounter with St Andrew High, as the Jennifer Brown-coached team jumped into an early 4-0 lead. For the remainder of the first quarter, St Andrew High maintained their four-goal advantage to lead 8-4 at the end of the period.

For the rest of the game, it was all St Andrew as St Catherine's players were making multiple turnovers on a regular basis. Led by great defensive work from goal keeper Azeezi Walters, along with sensible plays from goal attack Tiffany Clarke and goal shooter Tristiana Harwood, the new champions turned on the heat in the final quarter to win convincingly. Harwood top-scored with 19 goals from 21 attempts, while Clarke had 11 from 21.

Experience pays off

"We have a very talented set of girls who are very humble, and I was very confident that they would have won because for the entire season they have shown determination," said Brown. "Most of them were on the victorious team three years ago and the experience has paid off."

St Catherine's coach, Joan Walker, said: "The girls did not play to the game plan and this caused them to lose. But the coaching staff is very proud of them because we have improved big time this year, and we are looking forward to the future."

In the third-place play-offs, Vauxhall stopped The Queen's School 37-27 in junior action, while Queen's won 34-20 over St Hugh's senior team.