Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

JAMAICA'S UNDER-21 netballers will be aiming to level their best-of-three series against Australia in game two at 6:00 this evening at G.C. Foster College in St Catherine.

The young Sunshine Girls were whipped 55-31 by the Australians in the opening game on Wednesday night.

However, despite the heavy defeat, Jamaica coach Janet Guy is confident the team can bounce back.

"This is the first game and we are going to work on the weak points that we found (tonight) and we must come out with a better result in our next game," Guy said. "I am very disappointed with the result. The other team won, but I didn't expect the score to be as wide as it was."

Guy also said the girls didn't play as well as she expected because they made a lot of turnovers throughout the match.

"I believe that the girls gave up and their legs weren't going for them because they think that they can't do it (win) but I think they have to believe in themselves," she said.

Pleased with team's effort

Meanwhile, Simone McKinnis, coach of the young Australians, said she was pleased with her team's efforts.

"I am pretty satisfied with the performance of the team," McKinnis said.

"This is our first match. I think that it was a very tough game because it was only in the second half that things opened up for us."

"It was a physical game but my girls handled it quite well because I think we stayed in control, focused and we finished off the game very strongly. I would like the team to tidy up on a few things for the second match because there are times when we lost the ball just by the lack of concentration."

The Australians dominated the match from the opening whistle and established a six-point lead (15-9) at the end of the first period.

The Aussies came out firing on all cylinders in the second period through their ace goal shooter Ashlem Howard, who scored eight of her game-high 32 goals, to lead 25-16 at halftime.

Howard received solid support from Jasmine Keene, who sunk 24 goals from 36 attempts, as the Aussies outscored the Jamaicans (14-8) in the third period for a39-24 lead.

Christine Solmon (18 goals from 21 tries) and Vanessa Walker (11 goals from 16 attempts) scored the most goals for the Jamaicans.

The third game will be played on Monday at the National Indoors Sports Complex at 6:00 p.m.