Easy for Excelsior in AFNA final

Goal attack Hasana Williams turned in a brilliant all-round performance to lead Excelsior High to an easy 46-27 victory over Holmwood Technical in the final of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) Champion of Champions High Schools Netball Tournament at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday.

The 18-year-old Williams, who represented the senior Sunshine Girls last year, netted a game-high 28 goals from 40 attempts. Williams scored 15 of her team's 25 goals in the first half as Excelsior coasted to a 25-12 lead at half time.

Excelsior then turned in a dominant defensive display in the third period, as they held Holmwood to just five goals in the period while scoring eleven goals on their way to a 36-17 lead at the end of the stanza.

Williams received solid support from Racoya Douglas who netted 17 goals from 29 tries. Shadine Bartley was the leading scorer for Holmwood with 24 goals from 42 attempts.

Christopher Smart, the coach of Excelsior, said he was very surprised by his team's margin of victory.

"I didn't expect to win the game by this margin," said Smart.

"However, I said it from day one that this Excelsior team is at least 50 per cent better than the team that played in the all-island tournament last season and it showed by our margin of victory over Holmwood," he said.

VERY DELIGHTED

"I am very delighted that we won this competition, because we have worked very hard and so I believed that my girls deserved this title," Smart said.

Holmwood's coach Carline Graham-Powell was gracious in defeat.

"We were definitely the underdogs and my girls were nervous," said Graham-Powell.

"However, we are not going to take anything away from Excelsior because they have a very experienced team and so they went out there and they did their thing and so congrats to them," she said.

Meanwhile, Christ Church Foundation took third with an exciting 31-26 victory over fellow Barbados side Springer Memorial.