Flying start for Excelsior in ISSA urban netball

Defending Corporate Area and all-island senior schoolgirl netball champions Excelsior High are off to a good start this year.

In their first match in the second round, of the ISSA urban competition on Wednesday, they defeated Merl Grove 48-14 in a Group Two encounter at the Leila Robinson Courts.

After winning six games in the preliminary round coach Christopher Smart was pleased with his team's good start in the second round.

"It was an okay win for us. The opponents were not as strong as I had hoped, but our girls did reasonably well. I started a strong team to see what they were going to look like in the second round, but as I have said, my opponents were not strong enough, so we are looking forward to Friday's game against Camperdown," said Smart, who thinks the east Kingston-based girls will give his team a tougher challenge.

With the impressive Rocoya Douglas at the goal-shooting position in partnership with goal attack Rayanna Myers, Excelsior dominated the first two quarters 13-3 and 30-5 before resting most of their top players for the remainder of the game to pull off their easy win.

Camperdown have also been doing well. They joined the defending champions atop the group with six points after getting by Ardenne 44-10. Former champions the Queen's School were also winners after defeating St Andrew High 52-37.

Last year's beaten finalists Gaynstead, St Catherine High and St Andrew Technical were winners in Group One action. The Dalton Hinds-coached Gaynstead outclassed Jose Marti 53-3, while St Catherine overcame a stubborn Holy Childhood 39-31 and STATHS squeezed out a narrow one-goal win over Meadowbrook with a 22-21 victory .