OUR Lady of the Angels defeated registered an exciting 16-15 goal win over Quest to capture the 2013 Jamaica Independent Schools’ Association (JISA)/Preparatory Schoolgirls netball final at the Leila Robinson Courts last Thursday.

It was the very first time that Our Lady of the Angels were claiming the title after being among the top-five schools for the past five years.

Winning coach, Grace Bourah, who has been at the helm of Our Lady of the Angels for 20 years, was so delighted that tears came to her eyes at the final whistle.

“I must give God thanks for this victory as we worked hard in a four-year programme that we started to find a way to come out triumphantly,” she said.

Bourah said she told the girls that they should make a very special attempt to fight out the last two to three minutes of the last quarter, as that period has been the team’s downfall in the past.

“The girls are very excited on winning the title, but it was not easy,” she said. “The match was a very competitive and exciting right to the final whistle.”

Action during the match saw both teams locked on three occasions before Our Lady of the Angels gained a first quarter 5-4 lead. Quest levelled the scores in the second quarter 5-5 before pulling ahead 9-6 at the half-time break.

The Doreen Chambers-coached Quest kept their lead throughout the third quarter, gained a three-goal lead at (12-9) before the winners pulled back two goal, but they still trailed 13-11 at the final break.

Much of the exciting plays were produced in the fourth and final quarter with Our Lady of the Angels tying the scores at 13-13.

The scores were locked two more times at 14-14 and 15-15, and with little over a minute remaining in the match, Quest got a glorious opportunity to go ahead but the shot by Aaliyah White rebounded from the goal rim.

Our Lady of the Angels defence managed to gain possession of the ball and produced a quick counter-attack inside the shooting circle where Kalea McKenzie fired in the winning goal seconds before the final whistle to win an exciting encounter 16-15.

For Our Lady of the Angels, Ashley Coombs scored eight goals from 12 attempts and McKenzie, the Most Valuable Player of the final, scored eight goals from 15 attempts, while White scored 14 goals from 26 attempts for Quest.

In the JISA High Schoolgirls final, Teamwork from Montego Bay whipped Victor Dix from Mandeville 55-6