Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Jamalco's centre, Nadine Bryan prepares, to catch the ball as she stands in front of Tivoli Gardens 'A' centre, Peta-Gaye Thomas (partly hidden), while Tivoli's wing defence, Kimesha Sterling (right), and Jamalco's wing attack, Meisha Reid (centre), look on during game one of the Berger Paints Super League finals inside the National Arena on Thursday night. Jamalco won 56-49. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

Defending champions Jamalco will seek to wrap up the best-of-three finals of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA)/Berger Paints Super League competition when they oppose Tivoli Gardens 'A' in game two today at the National Arena, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Jamalco, who are seeking their sixth consecutive title, defeated Tivoli Gardens 56-49 in game-one Thursday night.

Aware of dangers

Winston Nevers, coach of Jamalco, said although his team would be going all out to prevent the series from going to a game-three decider, he is also aware of the danger the Tivoli Gardens team poses.

"We know that Sylvester (Campbell) is a very good and tactical coach and I know he will be planning for us. However, we are here to counteract anything he puts before us," he noted. "We have been scoring the most goals in the competition, over the past five years, and once we can maintain this scoring spree we should be able to close it out on Saturday."

He added: "There are still some areas we need to work on, which we are going talk about in our team meeting because whenever we are leading by 10 or more goals the girls relax and throw away the ball quite easily."

In reference to his team's victory on Thursday night, Nevers said: "It was a good team performance because we have the depth of the bench and that was what took us through. We are also a fitter team than them and our national shooter Elaine (Davis) gave us a wonderful performance inside the circle because I told them from the start, as long as we converted our goals, there was no way we were going to lose this game."

Meanwhile, Campbell said. despite the loss in game one, he was confident Tivoli could bounce back to win the series.

"I believe we can make this into a three-game series because once we can tidy up our centre court, we should be able to win the game," said Campbell. "It was a tough loss for us in the sense that we didn't play well inside the centre court because I thought we delivered well in our attacking area. Our defence really tried their best but our main problem was in our centre court and we need to fix that for our next game on Saturday."

Jamalco, led by national representative Elaine Davis' 40 goals from 50 attempts, dominated the game from the opening whistle and held a 28-20 lead at half-time.

The Clarendon-based team stepped up their defence in the third period, which saw them outscoring their opponents (12-9), for a 42-31 tally at the end of the quarter.

The West Kingston-based Tivoli Gardens, fought their way back into the game in the fourth period, mainly through the efforts of their national player, Kasey Evering, who sunk 10 of her team-high 35 goals in the final stanza to cut the deficit to eight points with less than three minutes remaining.

However, the Clarendon-based team held on for victory as Davis received solid support from team-mates Marsha Murphy (nine goals from 13 attempts) and Margaret Lawrence (seven goals from eight tries).