THE Sunshine Girls’ 2-1 series victory over England was set up by the gallant fighting spirit shown in the deciding third Test, according to members of the Jamaica set-up.

The hosts were imperious in the latter stages of Tuesday’s match at the National Indoor Sports Centre to outscore England 20-10 in the fourth quarter for a 57-47 victory.

The teams, both preparing for the Netball World Cup to be staged in Australia in August, had split the opening two games of the Supreme Ventures-sponsored series.

Nicole Aiken-Pinnock, Jamaica’s captain and goalkeeper, said the team “stepped up” after a below-par display during their loss in Game Two.

“The vibe was just fantastic. I have to give credit to the players because they really stepped up,” she told reporters after the encounter.

“After we watched the videos there were some silly errors that we made and that had to be fixed. The ladies were pumped up and ready to go.”

On the previous occasion that Jamaica hosted England in a Test series, the latter marched to a resounding 3-0 victory in the spring of 2013.

The countries met in a one-off encounter in January 2014 and hosts England were again the winners.

The Sunshine Girls avenged those defeats at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, clipping the England Roses for the bronze medal prize.

With an eye on the 2015 World Cup, the Sunshine Girls head coach Minneth Reynolds said local fans can expect even better from her team in the future.

“These Girls promised a series victory… we left it for the last game, but the vibe in the camp was very good. We had a very good team talk and they said they were going to leave it all on the court and they did exactly that.

“We can only get better. Once we continue to train hard with determination we know this is the beginning of better things to come,” Reynolds said, noting the grit shown in the Game Three performance.

Aiken-Pinnock heaped praises on the coaching staff for tweaking the make-up of the team to find the winning formula.

“I was so confident in my team and the coaches also made some fantastic changes which paid off. They played a big-time game,” the skipper said

Former Under-16 player Adean Thomas, who was not even on the bench for the first game of the series, started at centre on Tuesday. She was pivotal, busily spraying the ball to her teammates, while intercepting the England Roses’ passes on a number of occasions.

Veteran player Sasher-Gaye Henry, on as a substitute in the wing defence position, battled ferociously and harried England into making several errors.

Vangelee Williams, usually at wing defence, fell back into the goal defence slot to help nullify England’s goal attack Pamela Cookey.