DEFENDING champions St Andrew High will face Merl Grove High as the ISSA/Digicel Urban Area High Schoolgirl Senior League netball competition continues today at St Andrew School Courts at 3:30 pm.

The Jennifer Bro-coached St Andrew from Cecelio Avenue have won three games from three starts, having defeated Eltham High, Jose Marti Technical and Spanish Town High to lead Zone C with nine points.

With today's encounter against Merl Grove, St Andrew will have two games remaining to complete their preliminary round of matches against Holy Trinity and Meadowbrook, both of which they should win convincingly.

Meanwhile, the St Andrew High Juniors are also going great guns and will meet Merl Grove as they also seek their fourth straight win from as many outings.

So far, they have beaten Eltham, Jose Marti and Spanish Town to be at the top of the table with nine points in Zone C. They will next play Holy Trinity and Meadowbrook, respectively.

According to Brown, St Andrew are looking good in both categories, but there is still room for improvement.

"We're taking each of the matches one at a time as we need to look back and to analyse the mistakes and what areas of the court we need to improve on... prior to the start of the second round which is expected to be much tougher," Brown said.

Brown said she was surprised by the performances of the Juniors as they stood out against Spanish Town in their last match.

"I am very pleased with how they have been playing as they have improved a lot in each game," she said.

"The Seniors are holding their own nicely, but we need to work a lot on their defensive unit and we will have to make adjustments because there will be harder games ahead in the second round," she added.

Also on this afternoon in both Junior and Senior Leagues are: The Queen's vs Holy Childhoo; Ardenne vs STATHS; Hydel vs Trench Town; Campion vs Mona; Gaynstead vs Cumberland; Bridgeport vs Mavis Bank; Donald Quarrie vs St Jago; Haile Selassie vs Penwood; Jose Marti vs Eltham and Spanish Town vs Holy Trinity.

Home teams are named first, with Juniors matches starting at 2:30 and the Seniors at approximately 3:30 pm.

Meanwhile, the Rural Area competitions also continue this afternoon with the following matches:

Rusea's vs Hopewell; Irwin vs Cambridge; St James vs Holland; Herbert Morrison vs William Knibb; Frome vs Grange Hill; Petersfield vs Belmont; Westwood vs York Castle; Lewisville vs Black River; BB Coke vs Hampton; Manchester vs Cross Keys; Bishop Gibson vs Christiana; Denbigh vs Garvey Maceo; Central vs Kellits; Albert Town vs St Hilda's.

Home teams are named first, with Juniors matches to begin at 2:30 and Seniors at 3:30 pm.