ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — St. Vincent and the Grenadines Senior Female National netball team, Vincy Jewels, continued their march towards retaining their ECCB International Netball Series title on Thursday, defeating St. Lucia 57–43, at the Tanteen Hard Courts.
The Vincy Jewels, having stopped the much-fancied Bajan Gems the night before, were pushed in the opening exchanges but never ventured out of cruise control, leading in all four quarters: 18–11, 30-19, 44-29 and 57-43.
The St. Lucians’ effort was led by goal-attack Merlika Destang who scored 25 goals from 30 attempts, enjoying an accuracy of 83.33%, while goal-shoot Shem Maxwell had 18 from 22; a shooting accuracy of 81.82%.
Vincentian goal-shoot Maryann Frederick continued to put daylight between herself and Lottysha Cato of Grenada in the Most Goals category, enjoyed a shooting accuracy of 94.44% as she netted 51 goals from 54 attempts, while goal-attack Kristiana Christopher scored 6 from her 10 attempts – a shooting accuracy of 60%.
In a post-match interview, debutant Phiunza Laborde said the team’s strategy was “for us to come stronger than last year …
“A little bit more change in strategies, not to come with the same because, obviously, they would come much harder, but we planned on sticking with the good mindsets, a more focused mindset so that we can be able to conquer them in the end.”
It was obvious that St. Lucia, having lost last year’s encounter at home and having not lost a game before Thursday night, would be gunning for revenge.
Tiredness appeared to have been creeping in and affecting the Vincy Jewels game.
Laborde said the approach was “for us to take it down a bit so that we won’t have to speed it up and cause any sort of injury during the process of winning.
“So we turned our game down a bit, save the passes, and for us to make it a better play until the end,” the debutant said.
She refused to be baited into any discussion regarding Sunday’s game against Grenada, leaving the result to what is put out on the court of play.
Meanwhile, Vincy Jewels goal-shoot Frederick has scored 315 goals from 347 attempts in the six matches that she has played. She is followed in second spot by Grenadian goal-shoot Lootysha Cato with 237 goals from 285 attempts, also from six matches.
Rayana Regis of Antigua and Barbuda is third with 198 goals from 253 attempts from six matches.
Kay Copeland of the Cayman Islands is fourth with 186 goals from 226 attempts from five matches, and in fifth spot is Dominica’s Galiene Gordon-Seraphine with 138 goals from 175 attempts in five matches.
In a surprising twist of fate on Thursday, world-ranked #40 the Cayman Islands handed #21-ranked Grenada a 58–46 defeat, while Antigua and Barbuda won over Dominica 60–38.
In other matches played on Thursday, Anguilla defeated Montserrat 39–25, and Barbados trounced Guyana 94–16. Cayman Islands defeated Dominica 58–43, and Guyana lost to Montserrat 34–37.