The Fiji Pearls netball side has advanced to stage two of the Netball World Cup preliminaries after qualifying as the 3rd team from its pool despite conceding one of its biggest defeats in the tournament losing 101-32 to the Australian Diamonds in their final pool match last night.
The Tongan Netball team did the Pearls a huge favour after beating Zimbabwe 54-46 early this morning.
Despite the loss, the girls showed some determination and played their hearts out with the leadership of the senior players on the team.
Unaisi Rauluni and Maria Rusivakula once again led from the front but the Diamonds' side were just too good showing their class and pace to rattle the Pearls’ defence.
Australia led 23-9 after the first quarter before stretching out their lead to 47-18 at halftime.
The Diamonds extended their lead to 72-27 at the end of the third quarter.
The Preliminaries stage 2 games begins tonight.
