St Andrew High and The Queen’s School will meet in the final of the 2012 ISSA/Digicel Urban High Schoolgirls Senior League after victories in yesterday’s semi-finals at the Leila Robinson Courts yesterday.

Defending champions St Andrew High defeated former many-time champions St Hugh’s High 37-36, while The Queen’s School registered a narrow 30-29 win over St Catherine High who were losing their first match of the season.

The St Andrew-St. Hugh’s Senior League semi-final was a classic when after the latter went up 3-0, the former rallied to even at 3-3 before taking the lead 6-3 and held out at half time 11-7.

In the second quarter, St Andrew went up 15-7 and looked to be in control, but St Hugh’s rallied nicely to close at half time 20-17. Both teams traded goals in the third quarter as it became an evenly contested encounter with the scores locked at 23-23 before St Hugh’s went up 24-23. At the final break, St Andrew led 29-28.

St Hugh’s scored at the start of the fourth and final quarter to tie the match 29-29 and from then onwards a ding-dong battle ensued as the lead surprisingly saw St Hugh’s going up 35-31 with three minutes remaining.

A number of turnovers and missed shots were produced by both teams as they picked up the pace, but the Jennifer Brown-coached St Andrew started to rally strongly in the closing stages with the scores tied at 36-36 all with just about 15 seconds remaining.

St Andrew scored to take them in front 37-36 as the Roy Pryce-coached St Hugh’s suffered the consequence of failing to score a few chances and went down in defeat.

For St Andrew, Tiffany Clarke netted 31 goals from 45 attempts and Janielle Green six from eight efforts, while Antoinette Stone scored 17 goals from 24 attempts and Criss-Ann Williams with 13 from 21 efforts.

The other semi-final between The Queen’s School and last year’ beaten finalist St Catherine High ended in a similar fashion. The Phyllis Thompson-coached St Catherine aggregation led 10-7 at the first quarter break and kept the lead to half-time to close at 18-12.

Things began to take a significant turn in the third quarter as the Marvette Anderson-coached The Queen’s rallied well and in the process outscored St Catherine nine goals to four and looked dangerous at the end 23-21.

The four and final quarter produced a hustle and bustle for goals as the players began to get a little nervous as action increased with both missing scoring chances and turnovers were squandered.

St Catherine tried to hold onto their two-goal lead that was cut quickly to one at 28-27. It was now or never for both teams with The Queen’s tying the scores at 29-29 with only 20 seconds remaining. St Catherine missed a glorious scoring opportunity and from the attacking break, The Queen’s shooter found the target to go up 30-29 second before the final whistle sounded for the end of the match.

For The Queen’s, Khadijah Williams scored 22 goals from 30 attempts and Ramona Haughton with eight from 16, while for St Catherine Anastacia Coleman netted 16 goals from 21 attempts and Tashana Clarke with 13 goals from 21 tries.

Meanwhile in the Junior League semi-finals, defending champions St Hugh’s defeated Camperdown High 32-25, while The Queen’s breezed past Norman Manley High 48-28 goals.

Both Junior and Senior League finals are scheduled to be played on Wednesday, November 28 at the same venue.