Net­ball

?T&T will meet its tough­est op­po­nent in the World Youth Net­ball Cham­pi­onships to­day when it takes on the reign­ing cham­pi­on New Zealand.

The youth tour­na­ment be­gan on Mon­day at the new Tere­o­ra Mul­ti Pur­pose Sport­ing Com­plex with host Cook Is­lands win­ning the open­ing match against Wales, 43-37.

The re­sult gives the Cook Is­lands the ear­ly Pool B lead. Last evening, T&T, which is coached by for­mer na­tion­al play­er Peg­gy Cas­tana­da, along with the two on­ly oth­er Caribbean teams at­tend­ing the Cham­pi­onship were sched­uled to take to the court. The ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Girls led by cap­tain Joelisa Coop­er, a shoot­er, were to play North­ern Is­land, Ja­maica faced Unit­ed States and Bar­ba­dos took on the New Zealan­ders.

In the open­ing game, a strong start by the Cook Is­lands saw them jump out to a 3-0 lead, de­spite the pres­sure of a parochial crowd. Wales strug­gled in mid court against a sharp and ag­gres­sive Cook Is­lands de­fence. The last quar­ter saw a spir­it­ed ef­fort by Wales to draw with­in one goal but the Cook Is­lands moved the ball around in a pos­ses­sion game to win by six goals.