Jamaican high schools Holmwood Technical and Excelsior High along with Dominica State College all scored wins on day one of the AFNA Champion of Champions High School Netball Tournament held at the Leila Robinson Courts in Kingston Jamaica on Sunday.
Holmwood Technical who faced Christ Church Foundation of Barbados in the first game of the competition ran out comfortable 35-23 winners after a slow start that saw them trailing 4-6 at the end of the first quarter.
Struggling with a strong breeze that severely restricted their scoring, the Jamaicans struggled to convert on offense while the Bajans had a better time with the wind at their backs.
Christ Church had similar challenges with the wind in the second quarter, while Holmwood found their shooting range. Holmwood outscored their opponents 12-3 in the quarter to lead 16-9 at half time.
The team from Barbados rallied in the third quarter, narrowly outscoring their opponents 9-8 as the scores read 24-18 with 15 minutes to play. That would be as close as Christ Church would come as Holmwood dominated the last quarter 11-5 to be the first school to win a match at the inaugural Caribbean high school netball championship.
Excelsior were also comfortable winners, defeating Anglican High School of Grenada 40-26.
Excelsior started slowly but led 8-5 after the first quarter. They opened a big gap in the second quarter to lead 25-8 at half time.
Anglican High made a run in the third quarter to close the gap to 32-18 but an even fourth quarter saw both schools scoring 8 goals each as the Jamaican champions opened with a deserved win.
The third game was a much closer and more exciting affair between Dominica State College (DSC) and Micoud Secondary.
DSC took a two point lead at 7-5 after the first quarter but were overtaken by the lively Micoud in the second quarter as the scores read 13-10 to Micoud at the half time break.
Micoud continued to lead by three goals at the end of the third quarter as the scores read 20-17.
They continued to lead throughout the fourth quarter and with time running out seemed to have it in the bag at 26-22. But DSC rallied late in the game to level the scores at 26 all before running out 29-27 winners in the end.
Action continues today with four more games at the same venue, two starting at 2pm and two starting at 4pm. Entry is free for all days of the weeklong tournament.
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