Neil Corbett
Black Press
After a morning of BC Games netball action, it appears the Fraser River-Delta team (Zone 4A) should be favoured to defend their gold medal from the 2012 Games.
"The difference is the speed with which they do things," said tournament organizer Anne Wilcocks, who was the captain of the first Canadian national netball team in 1977. "Their skills are better, and they're faster."
The tournament opened with Thompson-Okanagan (Zone 2) beating Vancouver-Squamish (Zone 5) by a score of 19-15.
Game two saw Fraser Valley (Zone 3) win their tournament opener 31-10 over the Fraser River-Delta second team (Zone 4B).
The latter team only entered the tournament after the Smithers netball coach was diagnosed with cancer and immediately began treatment. The North West (Zone 7) team opted not to compete without their coach. So, Zone 4B was plugged into the tournament format.
The third game of the morning saw the reigning champs start defending their title in style. Zone 4A beat Vancouver-Squamish (Zone 5) by a score of 37-9.
The top scorers of the morning were Zone 3s Talia Tvergyak with 18 goals, Kathryn Dawson of Zone 4A with 13 goals, and Gabby Zeitler of Zone 5 with 12.