FAVOURITES bit the dust as St Catherine High and St Andrew High defeated highly fancied opponents in the ISSA/Digicel Urban High Schoolgirls semi-finals in both Junior and Senior netball leagues at the Leila Robinson Courts on Friday.

The Junior League final will therefore see St Hugh’s vs St Catherine High, while in the Senior League final, St Catherine face St Andrew on Wednesday.

It was joy for the winners and sorrow for the losers on Friday, while there were tears of joy for the coaches who pulled off those major upsets.

The first upset came when defending All-Island and Urban Area Junior champions The Queen’s were defeated by St Catherine, 30-28. This was followed by defending Senior League champion St Hugh’s crashing out, 26-24, against St Catherine.

St Andrew pulled off the third upset when they came from a third quarter 32-26 deficit to stop the previously unbeate Queen’s School, 39-37.

And what a afternoon’s play it turned out to be as all three teams that eliminated the more fancied schools produced some of the most exciting matches in years and were deserved winners.

Only St Hugh’s Junior team, one of the fancied ones, managed to survive as they defeated Vauxhall High, 38-35, but had to stave off a late challenge from their opponents.

St Catherine Juniors were down in the first quarter, 6-11, but rallied in the second quarter and trailed 14-17 at half-time. In the third quarter, the Joan Walked-coached St Catherine outscored The Queen’s and went into the lead, 25-23, at the break.

It was now or never for both teams heading into the final quarter. However, St Catherine’s goal-shooter Jamila Tulloch was the toast as she scored the majority of their buckets and was also the playmaker as the Spanish Town-based team pulled off the victory.

In the other Junior League semi-final, Minnette Reynolds, who took over the reigns from Phillip St Marie, who has left the island, had it much easier as they led 9-8 at the first quarter and 21-16 at half-time.

The Rohan Robinson-coached Vauxhall did not allow St Hugh’s to have their own way as they produced their best effort but trailed,y 30-27, at the final break.