Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s Calypso Girls held off a determined United States team to win 43\u201338 and secure their third successive victory at the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers in Bridgetown, Barbados.<\/p>\n
The Trinidad Express reported that Wednesday night\u2019s contest remained competitive throughout, with the Americans putting T&T under early pressure and threatening another comeback in the closing stages. A late interception by centre Shantel Seemungal, followed by a quick goal from Samantha Wallace-Joseph, helped settle the match.<\/p>\n
The Americans led 8\u20136 during the opening quarter before Trinidad and Tobago recovered to draw level at 8\u20138 by the first break. Neither side could immediately take control in the second period, with the scores tied again at 16\u201316 before the Calypso Girls established a 22\u201318 half-time advantage.<\/p>\n
T&T widened the gap to 37\u201331 in the third quarter, but the USA continued to challenge. With the margin narrowed to 42\u201338 late in the game, Seemungal\u2019s intervention and Wallace-Joseph\u2019s finish helped the Caribbean side see out the victory.<\/p>\n
Wallace-Joseph was named Player of the Match. She praised her teammates after a contest in which the Americans\u2019 intensity demanded a strong response.<\/p>\n
Head coach Liselle Johnson also welcomed the way her players handled the challenge. \u201cIt brought out the best in our ladies,\u201d she told the Express, pointing to their teamwork and determination to maintain the lead.<\/p>\n
Johnson said the competition reflected the development of teams across the region, including St Lucia, Barbados and the improving Americans. With two World Cup places at stake, she expected opponents to keep testing her side.<\/p>\n
The result followed Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s 61\u201345 victory over Grenada and 73\u201341 win against St Vincent and the Grenadines. After Wednesday\u2019s matches, T&T and Barbados both had three wins and six points, with the hosts ahead on goal difference: plus 99 compared with T&T\u2019s plus 53.<\/p>\n
The Express listed Canada as Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s next opponent, with that match scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. Further fixtures against St Lucia and the British Virgin Islands precede a meeting with Barbados on Monday, October 26.<\/p>\n
That closing encounter could prove significant in the qualification race. For the Calypso Girls, the narrow win over the USA kept their unbeaten start intact while demonstrating the sustained effort required to protect their position among the tournament\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A crucial interception helped T&T hold off the Americans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}