THE Sunshine Girls, Jamaica’s national senior netballers, are upbeat ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games (CWG), scheduled July 23 – August 3 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The team, which recently defeated Barbados 3-0 in a friendly three-test series at the GC Foster College, departs the island today for a five-day camp at Northumbria University in New Castle, England, before facing St Lucia on July 24 in their first game of the tournament.

The Sunshine Girls, currently ranked fourth in the world, are placed in Zone A alongside Scotland, Malawi, New Zealand, St Lucia and Northern Ireland.

Coach Minneth Reynolds was very confident when she spoke to the Jamaica Observer.

“These girls are training well and I believe that they will get the job done for us,” Reynolds said.

Meanwhile, technical director for the Sunshine Girls, Australian Jill McIntosh, has high expectations for the squad.

“We are hopefully going to do our best and hope that will bring us a medal. We need to win our first game against St Lucia. We don’t want to lose any early matches that will lead to our abrupt disqualification; we are going there to win every match,” McIntosh said.

“The squad is a nice, clean one, which is mixed with youth and experience and I think they are ready to go out there and produce,” she ended.

Jhaniele Fowler-Reid and Romelda Aiken, who recently returned from the ANZ Championship in Australia and New Zealand, are a big boost for the team’s attacking options.

Meanwhile, a few of the Sunshine Girls were subjected to drugs tests conducted by three Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) sample collectors during the team’s final training session at the National Arena on Monday night.

Several members of the senior team are now in the sample pool for drugs testing by JADCO, but Monday night was the first time some of the players were being tested by the local agency.

Squad: Sasher-Gaye Henry, Khadijah Williams, Malysha Kelly, Romelda Aiken, Paula Thompson, Vangelee Williams, Stacian Facey, Nicole Aiken-Pinnock, Shanice Beckford, Jhanielle Fowler-Reid, Thristina Harwood, Kasey Evering.

Reserves: Nicole Dixon and Deneen Taylor.

Minneth Reynolds (coach), Jill McIntosh (technical director), Antoinette Irons (manager), Xavier Thompson (performance analyst).