Guyana’s national girls squash team secured two dominant wins on day one of the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Caribbean Team Championships yesterday at the Liguanea Club Kingston, Jamaica. Guyana has won the last six consecutive girls team titles and after defeating two of the five opponents in the round robin format of the team tournament this year, are on pace to winning a seventh. In their first encounter Guyana rested two of its top seeds (Victoria Arjoon and Larissa Wiltshire) and still managed to edge a depleted Barbados girls’ team 3-2. Barbados began the encounter at a 0-2 deficit since they did not have any under-19 competitors, thereby conceding two walkovers. It therefore meant that Guyana only needed one victory to prevail and this was provided by National Under-15 champion Taylor Fernandes who defeated Alyssa White 3/0 in the under 15 category . Fernandes’ win was key since her U13 teammate Rebecca Low had lost 0-3 to Meagan Best while Akeila Wiltshire also lost to Gylla McKenzie 0-3 in the U17 encounter.
Guyana’s victory against Bermuda was more convincing as they won by 4-1 margin. Low conceded the only loss in this encounter as she went down to Olivia Lindley 0-3. The rest of the Guyanese girls completed dominant straight-game wins to wrap up their second win of the team tournament. Two-time under 15 Junior CASA runner up Larissa Wiltshire defeated Tiye Williams while U17 runner up Victoria Arjoon dispatched Emma Keane. Newly crowned Girls U19 singles champion Mary Fung-A-Fat defeated Alex Marshall while U19 runner up Ashley deGroot pounced on Alyssa Brewer.
The boys team also secured an emphatic 4-1 victory against the Cayman Islands in their Group B encounter last night. Shomari Wiltshire overpowered Isaiah Robinson 3-1 in the U13 matchup while Jean Claude Jeffrey crushed Daniel Murphy 3-0 in the place of prolific U17 champion Nyron Joseph who was rested after his two gruelling five-game matches in the singles category.
The U19 boys Steven Xavier and Jason Ray Khalil were also dominant, disposing of Nico Cummings and Sean Murphy respectively both in straight games. The boys have to compete in the group stage along with seven other nations in this year’s tournament. Guyana boys team will play the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States today while the girls team will go up against the Cayman Islands. The boys team has won the last four team events at Junior CASA and Guyana has won the last seven overall titles at the event.
