Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterJAMAICA'S WORLD Number two ranked Under-21 netball team suffered a 41-34 defeat to the New Zealand Silver Ferns in the first game of a three test series at the National Indoor Sports Centre last night.
Starting the game tentatively, both teams were guilty of turn-overs with Jamaica coming off worse for wear in each quarter.
The first quarter, saw the Sunshine Girls having a problem getting the ball into their goal shooter Latoya Thomas, who struggled along with her goal attack Jodi-Ann French.
The quarter ended 10-9 in favour of the New Zealand team and reeked of a low scoring game to come.
Jamaica's struggles came about because of a height deficiency that they took two long in paying attention to.
French ended her tenure at Goal Attack having scored two goals from five attempts. Her team-mate Thomas finished better with 11 from 16, but only after she was moved to goal attack with young Romelda Aiken coming in at goal shoot.
That change allowed Jamaica to throw the ball over the heads of the Silver Ferns' defenders.
However, Jamaica's mid-court came under severe pressure from, what was intense zoning from the New Zealanders. Aiken still managed 21 goals from 28 attempts.
A large part of their good defensive work was the play of Liona Barrett-Chase, who did just what her last name suggested for the entire game.
Their other hero was the tall Maria Tutaia, who scored 36 goals from 40 attempts, to end with the game high.
The second-quarter was a big one for the Ferns, who moved to a 20-18 lead which at times looked as though it would be much bigger, but Jamaica, to their credit, stayed in the game and could have overhauled the lead on a number of occasions except that they made crucial errors at those times.
At one point they had clawed their way back to 26-all, but almost in an instant that work was erased with three quick points from the Ferns that came from Jamaica's errors. Those mistakes saw the third quarter ending with the Ferns ahead 29-27.
After the game, losing coach Joan Cargill said her team didn't adapt during the game and that cost them.
"In terms of decision making, recognising the game and adapting, that is something that we'll have to work on," said Cargill.
While New Zealand's coach, Te Aroha Keenan, while happy for the victory, wasn't satisfied with her team's play.
"We had too many errors in our game and that is something that we are going to have to work on," she said.
