The Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT) had the eas­i­est of vic­to­ries in their quest for glo­ry in the Jean Pierre Chal­lenge Knock­out match in the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion of the Courts All Sec­tors Net­ball League on Thurs­day at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Tacarigua.

How­ev­er, it was a grind­ing con­test for the Fire Youth team which emerged from Group X and the oth­er Fire team, which ad­vanced from Group Y of the cham­pi­onships di­vi­sion.

The uni­ver­si­ty women (UTT) pro­gressed with­out even tak­ing the court, cour­tesy of a de­fault win over the De­fence Force, which failed to show for the en­counter. The win means they have ad­vanced to the quar­ter­fi­nals of the play­offs, which will con­tin­ue to­day.

On the oth­er hand, the Fire Youth tried to fol­low in the foot­steps of their Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion team, who won the open­ing day and Open Di­vi­sion knock­outs, by de­feat­ing Bermudez, 15-11, to book their spot in­to the quar­ter­fi­nals.

Jelis­sa Goodridge led the way with 14 goals from 25 at­tempts, while Daniel­la Hall was not at her best, but added one goal from eight tries that proved to be suf­fi­cient on the day.

The usu­al­ly-com­pet­i­tive Bermudez team did not de­liv­er as they nor­mal­ly would, de­spite a near-per­fect eight-from-nine-record from Jo­ce­lyn Mar­celle and three from eight from Za­kiya Mc Ken­na that saw them nar­row­ly trail at the half, 8-7.

Mean­while, the Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion (UTC) al­so moved to the semi­fi­nals, af­ter de­mol­ish­ing Jabloteh 29-8.

Goal-shoot­er Lil­i­ah Matthews drained 22 goals from 30 tries and Sta­cy Ann Gill, five from 11, as the UTC women led at half­time 13-1 in the 15-minute-a-half match.

The San Juan women got four goals each from the hands of La­toya Thomas and Saman­tha James-Lewis in their los­ing ef­fort.

Mean­while, Fire, the front-run­ner in Group Y, bat­tled to a 20-13 tri­umph over the MIC Tigers that earned them a place in­to the quar­ter­fi­nals. The usu­al sus­pect Nari­ba Grant spear­head­ed the win with 12 from 16. She was sup­port­ed by Akeela Ro­driguez who had six of eight.

For the Tigers, the pair of Kani­ka Paul-Payne and De’Ni­qua Rush top­scored with five and sev­en goals, re­spec­tive­ly.

Re­sults

UTT vs De­fence Force. UTT won by de­fault

MIC 13 (GS Aaliyah Mod­este 1/5, GA Kani­ka Paul-Payne 5/8, GS De’Ni­qua Rush 7/8) vs Fire 20 (GS Nari­ba Grant 12/16, GA Akeela Ro­driguez 6/8, GA Pearl St John 2/3. Half­time: 12-4 (Fire).

Fire Youth 15 (GS Jelis­sa Goodridge 14/25, Daniel­la Hall 1/8) vs Bermudez 11 (GS Jo­ce­lyn Mar­celle 8/9, GA Za­kiya McKen­na 3/8). Half time: 8-7 (Fire Youth).

UTC 29 (GS Kim­ber­ly Col­lette 2/2, GA Lil­i­ah Matthews 22/30, GS Sta­cyAnn Gill 5/11) vs Jabloteh 8 (GS La­toya Thomas 4/7,GA Saman­tha James Lewis 4/11). Half time: 13/1 (UTC).

To­day’s match­es

Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion

Jean Pierre Chal­lenge (Knock­out)

Quar­ter­fi­nals

O - UTT vs Po­lice, 12.30 pm

P - Fire vs TT Post, 1.05 pm

Semi­fi­nals

Fire Youth vs UTC, 1.40 pm

Win­ner of O vs Win­ner of P, 2.15 pm

Fi­nal, 3 pm

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion

Steve Sargeant Chal­lenge (Knock­out)

Fire vs Po­lice, 4.15 pm

De­fence Force vs UTT, 5 pm

Fi­nal, 6 pm