Francis

Sunshine Girls coach, Connie Francis, is not getting carried away after leading her team to huge wins over Australia and New Zealand, respectively, during the recently concluded National Commercial Bank-sponsored Sunshine Series, and insists that this is just the beginning of greater things for her team.

Francis credited her team for its impressive displays, and despite her belief that the Jamaicans have done well to close the gap between themselves and the two powerhouses, the former national goal attack and captain kept things in perspective by stating that her team still has a far way to go.

Said Francis: "We keep getting better throughout our preparations but this is still a very young team and we all still have a lot of growth to achieve ... this is just the starting point of where Jamaica's netball can go."

"We are not going to get overconfident because we know that these teams are capable of coming back at us. However, we are going to look forward to getting better

"We would also be looking to develop some more of our players," added Francis, while underlining some of the plans for the senior team.

avenging earlier defeat

Jamaica battled to a 56-55 victory over world number-one-ranked Australia to avenge their earlier 51-53 defeat and, in the process, levelled their two-match series. They then repeated the sequence against world number two New Zealand with Thursday night's 53-50 win, which followed their earlier 56-61 defeat.

Francis was pleased with her team's performance throughout the series and singled out the team's new focus on strength and conditioning as a major factor in their impressive turnaround. She also went on to praise the players for their commitment and dedication throughout training.

"I must attribute this victory to our coaching staff because we realised that our girls were lacking in a lot of areas, especially in strength and conditioning, and I thought that we should challenge that area and it shows that we were the better team today," she noted after Thursday's match.

"I saw where the New Zealand teams' knees were buckling. I must also give a lot of credit to the girls because they have worked very hard in training," Francis added.

The team will now break camp and the members will be looking towards the upcoming Jamaica Netball Association domestic leagues.

There next international assignment is next year's Commonwealth Games in India, where the Sunshine Girls will be hoping to challenge for top honours.

New Zealand's goal shooter Irene Van Dyk catches the ball while she is defended by Jamaica's goalkeeper, Nicole Aiken, during the second Test of the National Commercial Bank Sunshine Series at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Thursday.- Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer.