Queen’s upstage defending champions

DEFENDING URBAN senior champions, St Catherine High School’s hopes of repeating their feat suffered damage on Friday after they were beaten 25-20 by former champions, The Queen’s School in their top-of-table Group B ISSA Urban Schoolgirl Netball clash at the Leila Robinson Courts.

In what was the penultimate matches in the second round of the competition, the Marvette Anderson-coached Queen’s, who will play Convent of Mercy Academy (Alpha) in their final match on Tuesday, are well set to win the group and in the process avoid the dangerous Gaynstead in the semifinals.

Both teams came into the contest knowing that a win was critical and the 5-4 end to first quarter signified as much.

Things remained close in the second stanza with Queen’s taking a 10-9 lead at the break.

It was much the same in the third quarter, although Queen’s inched further ahead to lead 15-13 before moving away, outscoring St Catherine 10-7 to end with a 25-20 win.

Anderson was delighted.

“Today’s win was a good one. Getting a win against the defending champions is always a good feeling. However, we are not going to become complacent. Our dream is to get to the finals, so we are taking it one day at a time. It was a good all-round performance from the girls,” said Anderson.

With the loss, St Catherine, second with six points, two behind Queen’s, will play Jose Marti in their final game on Tuesday.

They are favoured to win this game and end second in the group, forcing a semifinal clash against last year’s beaten finalists.

Gaynstead, in the meantime, romped to another impressive victory in Group A to make it four out of four after blowing away Campion 48-16. They will play Vauxhall in their final game.

Other senior winners were Jose Marti, who blew away Wolmer’s Girls’ 37-6, Norman Manley, who stopped Alpha 29-21, and Camperdown who got by Jonathan Grant 28-25. There was a 30-30 tie between Vauxhall and Immaculate Conception.

In junior action, favourites Wolmer’s Girls’ picked up their fourth win in a row after geting by Norman Manley 30-26 in their Group A encounter.

St Hugh’s also stayed perfect in Group B after picking up win number four for eight points after getting by St Catherine 22-12.

In other junior matches, Immaculate stopped Vauxhall 25-17, Gaynstead beat Campion 36-19. Jose Marti edged Papine 28-14 and Jonathan Grant defeated Alpha 26-16.