The Queen’s, St Hugh’s take Urban titles
THE Queen’s School and St Hugh’s captured the Junior and Senior League titles in the Digicel/ISSA-sponsored Urban Area netball competition at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday.
St Hugh’s got by St Andrew High in a very exciting Senior encounter, 27-25, while The Queen’s defeated Vauxhall, 21-17, in the Junior decider.
The Queen’s girls were registering their second title triumph, having first won the Junior competition in 2007.
For many-time champions St Hugh’s, this was the most recent triumph.
While it was Queen’s coach Marvette Anderson’s second title among the Juniors, it was St Hugh’s coach Phillip St Marie’s first Senior League title.
Both coaches now await the winners of the Rural Area competition before matching them for the All-Island title.
The Rural final will be played tomorrow, with the All-Island final scheduled for next Tuesday.
The Queen’s, who finished the season unbeaten, were too strong for Vauxhall as from the first quarter they had the better of their opponents. They took a 6-1 lead at the end of the first quarter and by half-time were up, 13-3.
The winners producing some good passes and better team work and raced into a 20-8 lead after the third quarter. It was all Queen from then on as they scored another six unanswered goals.
According to Anderson, “It was a very good game and the girls played very well. We had a plan and they stuck to the task for most part of the game.”
The Senior League final was action-packed from the outset to the final whistle. St Hugh’s took the first quarter 5-2 but there was a ding-dong tussle in the second quarter, with the winners leading 10-5. The losers then rallied with five straight goals to draw even at 10-10. St Andrew, however, led 14-11 at half-time.
It was close going in the third quarter with the scores being level on three occasions, with St Hugh’s having a slim 20-19 lead at the break.
The final quarter became a humdinger with the scores again level on four occasions. The last time it was even was at 23-23 before St Hugh’s rallied strongly in the last few minutes to pull off an exciting win.
St Marie said his girls played excellently and both teams played a very exciting game.
“I’m very proud of the girls as they came out and did well. St Andrew High gave us a good fight,” he said.