Aussies Sweep Netball Series

Jamaica's Under-21 netballers gave an improved performance but it was not enough to prevent a sweep for the visiting Australians in the three-Test series which ended at the National Arena yesterday.

The local girls went down 53-35 yesterday after losing the first two games, 60-31 on Friday and 51-25 on Saturday.

Winning coach Carol Byers of Australia agreed that they had to work harder to win the third match.

"We had to work much harder for our win as the Jamaicans came out more determined. We are very pleased about the series as we got to know more about the Jamaican style to play," said Byers.

Annette Daley, head coach of Jamaica, said her team showed improvement during the three games.

"It was all about determination and hard work and the girls are showing improvement by working on their errors. For each performance you have to look on your errors and improve on them and they achieved some of that tonight," said Daley. She added that playing against the Australians before the Under-21 World tournament next year was a good experience for the girls.

With the small gathering cheering them on inside the National Arena, the local girls gave a spirited performance as they played well in spurts and with better ball handling, the score could have been much closer. After being in the contest on several occasions especially in the second quarter where they had their best showing so far in the series, they were let down by careless turnovers. At the end of the first quarter the Australians led 14-8 but Jamaica did well in the second stanza as they scored 10 goals, just one less than their opponents' 11.

aggressive

Jamaica did their best to be very competitive in the final quarter and they were very aggressive especially goal shooter Shantel Slater who had a keen battle with goal keeper Courtney Bruce. Once again it was the consistent goal shooter Kristina Brice of Australia who led all shooters as she scored 43 goals from 51 attempts with goal attack Shelcey Kemke scoring seven from ten. For Jamaica, Slater top scored with 30 from 36 with Danean Taylor at goal attack scoring all five of her shots.

- R.G.