QUEST Prep defeated St Catherine Prep 17-11 in extra time to capture the 2016 Jamaica Independent Schools’ Association (JISA)/Tastee Limited Prep Schools’ Netball League title at the Leila Robinson Courts last Thursday.

Winning coach Doreen Chambers paid tribute to St Catherine for pushing her team to the limit.

“I did not expect the game would have gone into extra time, but St Catherine played extremely well to give us such a strong battle. However, the longer the game went it was better for our players as they captitalised on the opportunity to outscore their opponents to clinch victory,” she said.

Losing coach Valerie Black blamed below-par fitness and inexperience of her players for the defeat.

“Fitness, however, was one of the reasons St Catherine lost and also Quest have some good players and are more experienced since they have been winning for over 10 years,” Blake said.

Blake congratulated Quest for winning the competition and said St Catherine had reached the final for the first time, and that the school is proud of their achievement.

“St Catherine should be one of the challengers for the title next year based on their performance throughout the season and only suffered their first defeat in the competition,” said Blake.

Akayla Lewis of Quest was voted MVP of the final for her outstanding performance at the centre position.

Quest took a slender 5-4 lead in the first quarter and held it to the half-time break 8-6. The game was so closely contested from then onwards that victory could have gone either way with Quest closing the third-quarter break in front, but by a narrow 9-8 margin.

Both teams battled throughout the fourth and final quarter with St Catherine keeping pace with the highly fancied Quest aggregation as they scored a few seconds from the final whistle to tie the game at 10-10.

Quest, however, were too strong for St Catherine in extra time as their shooters Quanna Owens and Kayla Reid outscored their opponents to come out victorious.

In the third-placed play-off, Hydel Prep beat dethroned champions Wolmer’s Prep 11-8.

Meanwhile, in the High Schools section of the competition, National Academy of Practising Nursing (NAPN) registered a thrilling 19-18 win over Quality Academics in overtime after both teams were locked at 16-16 at full time. Third place went to Victor Dixon High, who beat Kingsway High 11-8.