Coach pleased as Sunshine Girls take aim at gold
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — With one eye squarely fixed on rivals Trinidad and Tobago in Friday’s gold medal game at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, Co-Coach Niocle Aiken-Pinnock of Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls says her team’s shooting percentage has been building up nicely towards this massive encounter.
The Sunshine Girls recorded their second-consecutive victory in the competition on Tuesday with an effortless 116-10 victory over minnows the Cayman Islands.
The Jamaica team, which includes five players who will be attending this month’s Netball World Cup (NWC) tournament in South Africa, led 61-3 at half-time and 87-8 at the end of the third period in the match.
Goal shooter Amanda Pinkney, who only played the first two quarters of the match, netted a perfect 46 goals from 46 attempts. Simone Gordon shot 29 from 31, Rebekah Robinson shot a perfect 25. The Sunshine Girls’ massive victory also surpassed the competition’s record of 108 which was set by Trinidad and Tobago against Dominican Republic on Monday.
The Sunshine Girls will oppose the Dominican Republic in their third match of the tournament today.
Aiken-Pinnock, who is a former Sunshine Girls defender, said she was very impressed with her team’s execution because the ladies were excellent in the shooting circle as well as their defensive area.
“I think that the shooters are really concentrating on executing well, and it is good to see the percentage of the shooters going up,” said Aiken-Pinnock.
“I think that Rebekah really played well in that shooting position, and so too Amanda… and they are scoring really well — and that is something that we have to commend [them] on [to] just keep encouraging them to go forward,” she said.
“We have to be able to convert our centre passes, and whatever balls we get we have to ensure that we shoot them also because, at the end of the day, it is goals that win matches so it is important that we are shooting well right throughout the tournament,” Aiken-Pinnock stated.
She noted that Trinidad and Tobago are going to be very difficult to beat in Friday’s game, but she is confident they will overcome their Caribbean rivals to win the gold medal on Friday.
“We are not leaving any stones unturned because we know that Trinidad will be coming wanting that gold medal and so we have to ensure that we are hungry, and we are focused enough, and [that]we stay decided to our task and our processes just to ensure that we walk away with the victory,” Aiken-Pinnock said.