Netball season opens with exciting rally

All Stars 'A' (white/blue) won the cup playoffs.

Scores of junior and senior netball players took to the courts at the new John Gray High School gymnasium on Saturday, 4 November to start the 2017 Cayman Islands Netball Association season with the opening rally, which featured some intense action.

Activities opened with three U14 teams and four U12 teams competing. All Stars, Rising Stars and Sky Angels fielded teams in the U14 division, while All Stars, Golden Strikers and Rising Stars entered teams in the U12 division, with Golden Strikers having two teams.

Golden Strikers ‘A’ went unbeaten in their three matches to top the U12 table. They were dominant on the day with wins over All Stars (6-1), Rising Stars (10-0) and Golden Strikers ‘B’ (11-0). That amounted to an impressive 27 goals for and only one against.

Rising Stars was second with a win, a draw and a loss, followed by All Stars with one win and two losses. Golden Strikers ‘B’ was fourth with one draw and two losses.

Among the U14s, All Stars was unbeaten in their two games, edging Rising Stars 4-3 before beating Sky Angels 11-1. Sky Angels got their lone win in a tight 6-5 game against Rising Stars, who were winless.

After the juniors had their time on the courts, it was time for the adults to get in the swing of the action, with All Stars and Rising Stars both fielding two units. The other teams were Queens, Socialites, Unity and UCCI.

All Stars ‘A’ were tops in Pool A with three wins in as many games, taking care of Rising Stars ‘B’ 13-1, Unity 12-7 and Queens 16-5. Unity finished pool play second in the group with two wins and a loss.

In Pool B, Rising Stars ‘A’ were also undefeated against All Stars ‘B’ (10-5), Socialites (11-7) and UCCI (16-3). Socialites were second with two wins and a loss.

After pool play, it was on to the playoffs for the seniors, with the top two teams from each pool entering the cup playoffs and the bottom two from each in the plate playoffs.

All Stars ‘A’ continued their unbeaten run, beating Unity 7-3 in the semi-finals and advanced to face Rising Stars ‘A’, who got the better of Socialites 11-5. The final saw All Stars ‘A’ taking the cup with a 12-6 win.

In the plate finals, Rising Stars ‘B’ defeated Queens 8-6.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.