Defending champions lose unbeaten record

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

DEFENDING Corporate Area junior and senior champions, The Queen's School and St Hugh's, respectively, suffered a setback in their bid to retain their titles, as both schools were beaten at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday in the penultimate round of matches in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Corpo-rate Area netball competition.

In junior action, St Hugh's stopped Queen's 35-25, while in senior action, Queen's achieved a convincing 40-16 win over St Hugh's.

In the junior game, the Phillip St Marie-coached St Hugh's produced a brilliant fourth quarter to give Marvette Anderson-coached Queen's their first defeat in three years.

Queen's led 8-7 after the first quarter, but by half-time St Hugh's were narrowly ahead 17-16. It remained competitive after the third quarter, as St Hugh's led 24-22. However, in the final quarter it was all St Hugh's, as goal shooter Kadie Ann Duhaney and goal attack Jenell Jones were in unstoppable form, allowing their team to pull away for a 10-point win.

"We win some and we lose some, and possibly the girls lost focus in the final quarter after being competitive," said Anderson. "But we still have a chance to retain our title as two teams will be advancing from the group, and next time we are hoping to have a positive result."

St Marie stated that he was not surprised.

"We knew that we would have won because these girls trained very hard and they are a talented bunch of players," he said.

In senior action it was sweet revenge for Queen's as, led by outstanding plays from goal shooter Sade French, goal attack Khadijah Williams and centre Kelleisha Freckleton, they easily defeated the defending champions as St Hugh's had no answer. The Queen's team posted respective scores of 15-2, 25-5, 29-14 through the first three quarters, before ending 40-16.

Meanwhile, St Catherine High remained unbeaten, as in junior action they defeated Holy Child-hood 25-15, while their senior team whipped Meadowbrook 35-19.

In other junior matches played yesterday, Campion College (23) beat St Jago (15), Camperdown (22) topped Ardenne (16) and Norman Manley (22) got the better of Clan Carthy (19).