HEAD coach for the Sunshine Girls Minneth Reynolds said that she is confident that the girls will represent Jamaica well at the Fast5 tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, scheduled for November 8-9.

The team departed the island yesterday.

Reynolds said that the girls are upbeat and ready to go.

“Our first game will be against Australia and I can tell you that the girls are really excited and looking forward to the clash. Our plan is to take it game by game as their are some good teams that will be coming hard; and so we have to ready,” Reynolds told the Jamaica Observer.

The Jamaicans will compete against the top six netball nations — Australia, hosts and defending champions New Zealand, England, Malawi, and South Africa in the two-day tournament. They will play a round-robin format on day one where each team plays three games and on day two they will play two games, before entering the play-off stage when the Fast5 champion is expected to be crowned.

“I expect the girls to do well as they looked quite (good) in their preparations leading up to this tournament. They have been doing a lot of physical workout from September and in October they mainly kept focus on their fitness as well as they have done some technical skills. Overall, they have been doing well and so I expect them to do well over the next weekend,” she said.

“This is a very young team. We want to give these young players the opportunity to experience the bigger playing quality from the best countries as to assist them in their development as netballers. We are on a mission to develop players for the 2015 World Cup,” Reynolds added.

Reynolds revealed that Nicole Dixon and Staican Facey will make their Fast5 debut. “Going forward younger players need all the experience they can get,” said the coach.

The Fast5 tournament started in 2009 where Jamaica placed second, and then third last year when Thristina Harwood was voted the Most Valuable Player in the tournament.