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St Hugh's centre Adeon Thomas (right) grabs the ball ahead of Denbigh wing defence Zamoya Howell (left) and her teammate Shan Lambert in the ISSA/Pepsi All-Island netball final at the Leila Robinson Courts last year. - Rudolph Brown
DEFENDING Rural Senior Schoolgirl netball champions Denbigh High, who are also All-Island defending champions, will be hoping to claim back-to-back wins, when they battle with former champions Holmwood Technical in the final of the Rural Area Digicel ISSA final today at Manchester High School's netball court at 11:30 a.m.
Preceding that game, at 10:30 a.m, will be the junior final, where Manchester High will oppose Anchovy High. The senior final is a repeat of last year's matchup, where Denbigh put an end to Holmwood Technical's five-year winning streak.
Both teams have been the best in the division so far in the rural area, and an epic battle is expected. In Tuesday's semi-finals at G.C. Foster College, both teams recorded easy wins to advance to today's final. Holmwood humiliated Knox College 56-11, while Denbigh stopped former champions Edwin Allen 40-21.
It will be a grudge match of sorts for the Carlene Graham-Powell-coached Holmwood Technical and she is very confident of regaining the title.
"The girls are bubbling with confidence and they are very determined to take back the title to Christiana. With several of our Under-16 players who won the junior title last year now moving up to the senior level to join Deneen Taylor, I think our team is much stronger than Denbigh and we should win," said Graham-Powell.
Although having great respect for Holmwood, coach of Denbigh Christine Bartley is very optimistic about her team's chances.
"We are very confident and once the players show their true potential, we will be victorious," she said.
"Our strength is in our defence and attacking plays and once our mid-court players turn in a positive effort we should win," she added.
In the junior final, the Simone Smith-coached Manchester High team, following their brilliant semi-final against Denbigh on Tuesday, should start as favourites to upstage first-time finalists Anchovy, who surprised Titchfield High 20-17 in their semi-final at Buckfield court in Ocho Rios, also on Tuesday.
The winners of today's finals will oppose Urban winners St Hugh's and St Andrew High in next week's All-Island junior and senior finals.
