After two exciting encounters at the AO Arena in Manchester, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls and England’s Vitality Roses are now in Kingston for the second leg of the four-match Horizon Series.

With England leading the series 1-0, after topping game two 56-47, while the game one ended in a draw, the decisive third and fourth games scheduled for November 25 and 26 at the National Indoor Sports Centre promises to keep spectators at the edge of their seats.

In fact, with the games set to be the Sunshine Girls’ first encounter at home in a long time, Head coach Sasher-Gaye Henry is optimistic that they can deliver two top performances to treat local fans.

“I think we did great as a team and we should be proud of our achievements, maybe the last result was not we what we wanted but it’s something that we have to work through and try to come the last two games and improve on our performance” Henry said shortly after arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport on Monday.

Henry believes her number four-ranked Sunshine Girls possesses enough quality to top their number two-ranked opponents, but in the same breath, pointed out that it is easier said than done.

“It is going to be two keenly contested games. It’s going to be competitive. We have to respect England and their second place in the world and we are number four. It all comes down to being disciplined, being precise in our movements and to improve on our weaknesses that we had. We have to limit our turn overs and capitalize on their strengths so it’s something that we have to work on,” Henry noted.

First time captain Shamera Sterling-Humphrey was also optimistic about the team’s chances against the Vitality Roses.

“I feel like once we can fix what needs to be fixed in the three ends of our court –the mid court, the shooting and the defence –then I think Jamaica can get the two wins.” Sterling-Humphrey shared.

 Her counterpart Fran Williams was happy to be in Jamaica for the first time to compete against the Sunshine Girls as she also declared high expectations for the two matches.

“We are so excited to be here and it’s amazing to get to travel and get to play in other countries and explore new places. We’ve had such a good start to the series with two really close matches including a draw so it’s going to be exciting on Monday and Tuesday next week,” Williams beamed.

Meanwhile, England’s coach Jess Thirlby echoed similar sentiments.

“We know that this is going to be a really tough ask coming out to Jamaica but we know we are on the hunt for one more win to try and take that series. Our expectations of ourselves re high but the Jamaica Sunshine Girls have got some if not a lot of world class girls in that side,” Thirlby stated.

Game time 6:30pm on Monday, and 7:00pm on Tuesday.

NB: The Horizon Netball series can be seen live on SportsMax and the SportsMax App.

Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls were unable to get back on level terms against the England Vitality Roses, after suffering a heavy loss in the second match of the series in Nottingham on Saturday.

The lopsided 66-47 loss pushed the home team to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series, having won the opening match opening game of the series 55-45 last week.

In the first encounter between the teams, it was the Sunshine Girls that had led at the half, this time around a devastating England attack led by 8 goals after the first quarter, and defensively managed to restrict the Jamaicans to 6 points as they doubled their advantage for a 35-19 half-time lead.

Similar to the first match, the Jamaicans were plagued by numerous turnovers but managed to make inroads into the lead at the start of the third quarter.  The damage was, however, mostly done with England managing to give several non-regular players game time with the win all but secured.  The teams will play the final match of the series at the same venue tomorrow.