-From Iva Wharton in Trinidad compliments of Digicel
Despite their best efforts Guyana’s national netball team still went down 8-124 to Jamaica, former champions of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations yesterday at the Jean Pierre Complex in the compound of the Hasley Crawford Stadium.
Angeline McCarthy with eight goals from 12 attempts was the scorer for Guyana while Shonnette Estwick was goalless after one attempt. The Jamaicans on the other hand with four goal scorers, totaled 124 goals from 129 attempts.
Yesterday’s match against Jamaica was probably Guyana first attempt at playing aggressively in the tournament but it was just not enough as the Jamaicans were much taller. Attempting long or high passes did not work to Guyana’s advantage as they were quickly intercepted by the powerhouse Jamaicans who went after everything whether long, short or high.
The only person on the Guyana team who was able to get away was Tasnica Lovell who is the smallest in size on both teams. With her height and speed she able to do a lot of dodging until the ball was out of her hands.
Guyana’s Coach Lavern Fraser-Thomas in her post match interview said:”I thought that the team performed a little better than they did in the other two games. However, they were somewhat intimidated by the Jamaicans first and foremost because of their height and size and the fact that they are powerhouses in netball in the Caribbean,” Fraser Thomas declared.
She said that the fact that the team was able to score eight goals was an indication that they were working, “and some of the players really excelled above their usual level of play which is very good for us, though I think they still allowed that intimidation to prevent them from giving of their best. It is my only hope that now that we have gone past this hurdle, which was really the highest hurdle, I think that we can really settle down and get back to raising the level of our score.” Jamaican coach Oberon Pitterson–Nattie said that the game was a good one for them.
“We were able to execute our game plan and we did that even though it was a little difficult sometimes. But our aim was to get very involved because you want to give everybody the experience because when it comes down to the tougher games the other persons can step in and help out,” she stated.
Guyana, who lost their opening game to host Trinidad and Tobago 105-10 was also beaten by St Lucia 17-85 in their second game.
During the St. Lucia match, two players were injured and had to seek medical attention. One of those players was told to stay off the court. The other played with her injured leg which was not a plus for the team and during the Guyana/Jamaica match, Robyn Thomas, who play both wing attack and wing defense was taken to the hospital for medical attention after suffering an injury to her left hand. “I am right now very apprehensive that she has gone to the medical centre and I am only hoping that the injury is not as dangerous because if we are unable to get her services for the duration of the tournament that would be a really terrible thing for us, because we have been using her in both attack and defence on the court and I think it would be really hard for us to fill her role,” Fraser-Thomas said.
She, nevertheless, said that if it comes to that then the other players will have to pick up the slack.
Today Guyana will face Barbados. Guyana has so far all three of its lost three games to Trinidad, St. Lucia and Jamaica.
