Netball double for St Hugh's

Raymond Graham, Sunday Gleaner Writer

ST Hugh's High showed early signs that they will be the team to beat this year as their junior and senior teams were dominant at last Friday's ISSA Digicel schoolgirls opening netball rally at the Leila Robinson Courts.

In the junior final, they stopped Titchfield 5-1, while in the senior showdown, they turned back St Catherine High 6-3.

With only St Jago High and Meadowbrook High from the Corporate Area and St Catherine High a no-show, all the other competing teams were on hand as teams used the opportunity to test their opponents, despite games only lasting six minutes. Teams were divided into four groups with winners and runners-up advancing.

In the senior section, The Queen's School topped Group One with 10 points, ahead of Oberlin, also on 10 points. St Catherine High (six) came out on top of Group Two ahead of Camperdown (four), while in Group Three, Titchfield on 10 points won ahead of Holy Childhood on six points. In Group Four, St Andrew High, with 12 points, came out on top of St Hugh's with 10.

Exciting quarter-final

In quarter-final action, the winners were St Hugh's, St Catherine, Titchfield and St Andrew High. In a very exciting game, defending senior champion St Hugh's got the better of the star-studded Queen's team 7-5. The Queen's team included their top juniors from last year, a team which dominated for two seasons. The game went into overtime after the scores were locked at 5-5 at full time.

It was an easy 3-0 win for St Catherine over Holy Childhood, as Titchfield stopped Oberlin 2-0 and St Andrew High were 5-1 winners over Camperdown.

In the semi-finals, St Hugh's, who lost to St Andrew High in the preliminary round of the competition, avenged that defeat by beating their opponent 3-2 while in the other match St Catherine got by Titchfield 3-1.

In a very exciting final, both St Hugh's and St Catherine were locked at 3-3 at full time before St Hugh's found an extra gear in overtime to win 6-3.

In junior action, St Hugh's, who topped their group, had an easy 5-1 win over Titchfield in the final to give the Cross Roads-based school a double and a lot of confidence going into the league competition which is set to start on Wednesday for Corporate Area teams.