Trinidad and Tobago won the opening match of the American regional qualifiers for the Netball World Cup Sydney 2027 today at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium.
Trinidad and Tobago defeated Grenada 61-45.
Maikea Bramble scored 30 goals from 32 attempts, Kira Rothwell 18 from 19 and Samantha Wallace 13 from 14.
For Grenada, Lottysha Cato led the scoring with 35 goals from 39 attempts and Celina Browne added ten from 11.
Hosts Barbados will play British Virgin Island at 8 p.m. Currently on court, United States are playing St Vincent and the Grenadines and Canada will play St Lucia at 6 p.m.
Two spots are up for grabs, but Barbados have fallen to 19th in the world and has been defeated by both Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent in recent times.
Coach Julie Phillips, in today’s Daily Nation, acknowledged the significance of the moment.
“Playing at home is always a double-edge sword where you want to do well in front of your fans but focusing on pleasing your fans can also affect your performance on court,” she said.
“At the CAC Games in Santo Domingo we lost to Trinidad 39-61 and then we stumbled in the bronze medal match, going down to St Lucia 34-41. However, we looked at our CAC performance and we not only made adjustments to our game, but we have made some personnel changes.”
There are some new faces in the squad, but Phillips said she expected the more experienced players, led by captain Shonette Azore-Bruce, to compensate for this. (Nation News)