Jamaica demolished the United States 70-16 on day two of the Americas Netball World Cup qualifiers at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Jamaica on Monday, a day when the hosts as well as Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados remained unbeaten.
In the Jamaica-US match, the visitors’ defenders had been working hard in the opening minutes trying to double-mark shooting sensation Jhaniele Fowler. However, in doing so, they left the talented Kelsey Jonas unmarked and she took advantage of the situation to help give Jamaica an early lead.
The process remained much the same for the duration of the first quarter, with Jamaica fluid and fast in attack, finding their shooters with ease and taking a 7-18 lead into the first interval.
In the second quarter, the Sunshine Girls rotated their attack, bringing on new players at the center, wing attack, goal attack, and goal shoot.
Despite the change, the play remained the same as Jamaica made the US work hard in all areas of the court, there was no stopping the on-form Jamaica side as they took an 8-36 lead into half-time.
After scoring only one goal in the second quarter, the US managed to find the net four times in the third quarter.
The Sunshine Girls still remained out of their reach, however, as the Jamaicans led 12–55 with 15 minutes remaining, a lead which they continued to extend until they reached 70 goals for the second time in these qualifiers to secure the win.
Earlier, in the first match, Grenada emerged victorious when they took on Antigua and Barbuda. The match ended 62-29, their highest goal tally so far in these qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago beat St Vincent and the Grenadines 49-42, while in the final match of the day, Barbados emerged victorious over St Lucia, 58-26.
At the end of day two, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago both had six points from the three matches each played while Barbados and Jamaica had four points from two matches each.
St Vincent and the Grenadines and the US are on two points from three matches, while the other three teams – Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, and St Lucia – have not scored any points so far.
The top two teams from the Americas Netball World Cup qualifiers will qualify to be invited by World Netball to the Netball World Cup 2023 in South Africa, with the exception of Jamaica who will only be playing for World Rankings points due to already qualifying for the World Cup because of their WN World Ranking as of August 12.
The qualifiers run until October 22.
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