Westlanders Netball Club is now reaping the benefits of their hard work throughout the years.

This was highlighted as the Westmoreland team shot to national prominence with a nail-biting 38-37 victory over Blue Eagles in the Cornwall Supreme Ventures County Major League final at Montego Bay Boys’ and Girls’ Club on Saturday evening.

“We’re a mature team, so it’s confirmation that all the training and practice over the years have paid off and we’re looking to move forward,” Westlanders’ Captain Nickhesia Pearce of their win over a youthful St Elizabeth aggregation.

“We’re very elated,” she added. “We’ve to commend our opponents for putting up a great fight and we had to hold our own.

“Kudos to them; they’re a young team and they made us really, really have to work for our victory. It was a very competitive game. They really showed up. We had to really dig deep to come up with the title.”

Westlanders now move on to the upcoming Champions League, another innovation by Netball Jamaica to expose parish teams to stronger competition as it promotes the top teams to county championships, then the ultimate showdown to be contested by all the county finalists in the respective categories.

The Champions League will be played at GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport on Saturday and Pearce expressed optimism.

“We still have some things to improve on. We don’t see any team as a threat,” she said. “We’re confident we can do well and we’re going there to do our best and to put up the same fight that we did on Saturday.”

Tiana Grant was the chief scorer for Westlanders, sinking a high percentage 32 of 35 attempts, while Pearce scored six of 10 tries.

The captain praised Grant and her team for its all-round effort.

“I have to give credit to Grant, [as]she held her own; she was shooting, she was on target and our defenders, they had their challenges, but they stood up to task,” said Pearce.

“All round it was a really good game. We had some errors, but we had to bounce back and defend and get back their centre pass.”

Polesha Williams was Blue Eagles’ top scorer, hitting 28 of 36 tries. Her team’s other scorers were Zaria Pascoe with six goals from seven attempts; Tayana Bruce, two from two; and Nadalia Simms, who netted one of two tries.

Champions were also decided in two other divisions during Netball Jamaica’s showdown for Cornwall’s top prizes in MoBay.

In the Sunshine Cereals Intermediate League final, Montego Bay Boys’ and Girls’ Club hammered Sting 36-13, while Angelets also scored an easy win, disposing of Blazers 38-20 in the Supreme Ventures Minor League.