Open League champions National Housing Trust (NHT) “A” and Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) “A” will take on each other as the 2018 Business House Netball Association (BHNA) Divisional Senior “A” League competition gets under way today at the Leila Robinson Courts, starting at 7:00 pm.

The other Senior “A” League game scheduled to be played today is between defending champions Scotiabank and Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to begin at 5:00 pm.

Senior “A” League teams will play each other twice with the top four advancing to the semi-finals.

The Senior “A” and “B’ Leagues will be played for one hour of four quarters of 15 minutes each.

Intermediate “A” and “B” Leagues will be played for 48 minutes with four quarters of 12 minutes each, while the Junior League will be played for 40 minutes with four quarters of 10 minutes each.

NHT “A”, fresh from their 32-25 win over dethroned Open League champions Scotiabank in last month’s final, should start on a winning note, but could find tough resistance from ATL “A”, who are not expected to make things easy for their opponents.

Coach Christopher Smart said his aim is to win every game and go straight into the final instead of the play-offs.

“We will be taking each game one at a time and hope that the players stick to the game plan, although it is early days and a long way from advancing to the final. The players will not be taking their opponents lightly, but will be playing to win,” Smart said.

NHT “A” will be relying of national representative Thristina Harwood to do the bulk of the goals as she did in the Open League final where she led her team to victory. To give her support in shooting should be goal-attack Jodi-Ann Ffrench-Kentish, who is very efficient.

The centre court trio of Antoinette Stone, Trishana Hanson and Kerry-Ann Brown should have a keen battle for possession of that area against their opposing ATL’s centre court players, while goal defenders Abbigail Linton and Vangelee Williams should hold off the goal attempts from their opposing shooters inside the circle.

ATL “A” are expected to rely on goal-attack and captain Shian Gonzales and goal-shooter Shenova Edwards, while they should receive valuable support from Amanda Henry, along with Conique Moore, and Sherika Dixon at centre court.

Defenders Keneliah Riley and Monique Emry should have their hands full in preventing the shooters from NHT “A” from going on a goal-scoring spree.

Defending Senior “A” League champions Scotiabank should begin the defence of their title on a winning note against UDC.

Despite defeat to NHT “A” in the Open League final, Scotiabank’s coach Winston Nevers will be looking to make amends in the divisional league competition.

He will be looking towards goal-shooter Marsha Murphy-Dawkins, along with Tennisha Bernard to outshoot UDC, with support to come from Nuadia Brown, Shann Lambert and Sateva Taylor-Barnes at centre court, while goaltenders Shadiann Hemmings and Althea Byfield should stave off their opposing shooters’ goal-scoring attempts.

The other matches scheduled for today are: National Water Commission vs Jamaica Customs “B”; Guardsman Group vs Jamaica Fire Brigade; Cable and Wireless vs Sutherland Global Services Limited at 4:15 pm.

At 5:30 pm – HEART Trust/NTA vs National Housing Trust “B”; JACE Consultant Company vs Lannaman and Morris Shipping Company; JMMB Bank vs Guardian Life Group.

Jamaica Urban Transit Company vs Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation; Sagicor Life vs WISYNCO; Jamaica Public Service vs Ministry of Finance at 7:00 pm.