Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls ended Friday’s day one of the Fast5 Netball Series at the Christchurch Arena in New Zealand winless after losses to Australia, Uganda and South Africa in their three games.

The first match saw them suffer a 24-goal loss to the mighty Australians, losing the quarters 14-5, 7-4, 9-3 and 9-3 for a total score of 39-15. Romelda Aiken-George scored four goals from six attempts and Gezelle Allison had the same number of goals in four more attempts.

They were then upset 33-22 by Uganda in their second outing.

The Ugandans got out to an early 10-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched it to 17-7 at halftime. The second half was a lot closer as there was just one goal between the two teams with Uganda winning quarter three 9-8 and the fourth ending 7-7. Amanda Pinkney and Aiken-George combined for nine goals including two three pointers.

The third game was the closest as Jamaica suffered a one-point loss to South Africa after having a six-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

The first quarter saw only five points in total being scored as Jamaica prevailed 3-2 while the second quarter was tied 8-8 meaning the Sunshine Girls led 11-10 at the half.

Jamaica’s lead was then stretched to six after a 12-7 third quarter made it 23-17 before a spirited fourth quarter comeback by the South Africans gave them a 28-27 win. Amanda Pinkney scored eight goals from 13 attempts while Mischa Creary was perfect from her six attempts.  

Jamaica will play England and New Zealand on day two at 12:00pm and 3:45pm local time (6:00pm and 9:45pm on Saturday in Jamaica) in their final two round robin games.