​The stage is set for an all-uni­ver­si­ty show­down in the Al­ter­na­tive Di­vi­sion knock­out fi­nal, as Chama­ra Fran­cis and Alyssa Con­nel­ly pow­ered their re­spec­tive teams to vic­to­ry in the Courts All Sec­tors Net­ball League at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Tacarigua on Thurs­day.

With de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons De­fence Force ab­sent from the di­vi­sion this year, a new pow­er dy­nam­ic has emerged. The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT) will now face off for the ti­tle on March 15 at 2 pm.

​​The road to the fi­nal in the 15-minute-per-half com­pe­ti­tion re­quired both grit and sharp­shoot­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Fran­cis for UWI. Af­ter net­ting 15 goals to edge past Po­lice 17-14 in the ear­ly rounds, she re­turned to the court to sink nine goals from 16 at­tempts, lead­ing UWI to a com­fort­able 11-5 win over Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion (UTC) Sparks in the semi­fi­nals.

​Mean­while, Alyssa Con­nel­ly en­sured UTT’s pas­sage was just as smooth. The goal-shoot­er bagged 12 goals from 20 tries, sup­port­ed by Sydelle Wise­man's six off sev­en, to dis­patch Po­lice Net­ball Youth Club (PNYC) 18-10 af­ter hold­ing a slim three-goal lead at half­time.

​The mo­men­tum doesn't stop with the Al­ter­na­tive Di­vi­sion. Sat­ur­day’s line­up shifts the fo­cus to­ward the elite tiers and the pres­ti­gious Jean Pierre knock­out com­pe­ti­tion.

The Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion takes cen­tre stage this evening, fea­tur­ing a clash be­tween Po­lice and UTT, while the Men’s Di­vi­sion adds a phys­i­cal edge to the night with their own knock­out brack­et.

​The week­end in­ten­si­ty con­tin­ues to­mor­row with a Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion dou­ble-head­er. De­fence Force faces Po­lice at 3 pm, fol­lowed by leader UTT against strug­gling Re­boot Tigers at 4.15 pm. To close out the week­end's pro­ceed­ings, the high-speed Men’s Di­vi­sion Fast 5 knock­out be­gins at 5.30 pm, fea­tur­ing four quar­ters at sev­en min­utes each.

Semi­fi­nals

PNYC 10 (Raenell Fe­lix 1/4, Anes­sa Ser­rette 9/13) vs UTT 18 (Alyssa Con­nel­ly 12/20, Sydelle Wise­man 6/7). Half­time: 7-4 (UTT)

UTC 5 (An­ish­ka Bernard 3/7, Aza­lea Mar­celle 2/5, Laila Hen­ry 0/0) vs UWI 11 (Chama­ra Fran­cis 9/16, Lexi Year­wood 2/2, Christi­na James 0/2). Half­time: 6-3 (UWI).

Ear­ly round

Po­lice 14 (Denya May­ers 6/11, Amelia Bar­ton 8/18, Gabrielle Richards 0/0) vs UWI 17 (Chama­ra Fran­cis 15/19, Lexi Year­wood 2/4). Half­time: 10-8 (UWI).

Match­es

To­day

Al­ter­na­tive Di­vi­sion

Po­lice vs PNYC, 11 am

UWI vs UTC, 11.50 am

Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion

Jean Pierre Knock­out com­pe­ti­tion, 12.45 pm

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion

Po­lice vs UTT, 4 pm

Re­boot vs UTC, 5.15 pm

Men's Di­vi­sion knock­out, 6.30pm

To­mor­row

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion

De­fence Force vs Po­lice, 3 pm

UTT vs Re­boot, 4.15 pm

Men's Fast 5 Knock­Out, 5.30pm