Two in two for ‘Calypso Girls’

Top goal-shooter Anastasia Wilson starred for T&T once again as she helped the “Calypso Girls” score their second straight victory, 55-28 over Canada at the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) Championships at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo, on Sunday night. Wilson was good for 39 goals from 45 attempts in another one-sided affair. The day before the national netballers spanked Guyana, 104-10. As in their opening match of the tournament, T&T dominated from the start despite facing more determined opponent. The Canadians, who were on a bye on the opening day, were aggressive from the first pass and stayed close, to trail by only six (13-7) goals in the opening session.

 

 

Wilson, though, with support from goal-attack Joelisa Cooper (14/16) got T&T to a 14-goal lead (27-13) at the halfway mark. On the resumption of the second half, coach Jennifer Frank made a number of changes, moving wing-attack Candice Guerero to the centre position and replacing her with Rhonda John-Davis. Initially, the changes worked as T&T established a 22-goal (44-20) advantage by the end of the third period. Frank again administered some more adjustments to start the fourth and final period, installing Jellene Richardson (2/2) into the goal-attack position and putting Kimfer Phillip, who started as the goal-keeper, into the wing –defence spot for Onella Jack. “When we made the changes it broke the momentum of the team,” said Frank. “We will have to look at our combination for the upcoming matches to get it right.”

 

 

T&T went on to score the lowest amount of goals of the four periods, 11 to be exact. However, the drop did not affect the overall outcome of the match as they went away with the 27-goal victory, to delight of the local supporters, who again came out in their numbers to cheer for the “Calypso Girls”. For Canada, goal-shooter Cherry Don Nickie topped with 17/23 and her teammate Sabrina Versteeg had 11 off 17. Frank shared that she was very pleased with her team’s performance thus far in the competition and expects her players to get the most out of their next two matches as they will face tougher opposition as the competition progress.  Yesterday T&T was to play Bermuda, who was crushed by Jamaica, 107-13, in the final match on Sunday. “We had our set plays and our plans out there and I think we went out and executed what we were putting into practice and it worked well for us,” said Frank. “Our aim right now is to get our momentum going and as I mentioned before we will be looking at our combinations coming down to the other games.”

 

 

Yesterday’s early scores