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HOLMWOOD TECHNICAL stole the show at yesterday's semifinals of the ISSA rural schoolgirls' netball competition at Manchester High school.

The school's junior and senior teams pulled off wins to advance to tomorrow's finals at the Leila Robinson Courts.

The juniors defeated Glenmuir High 35-30 and will meet Manchester High in the final while the seniors stopped Denbigh High 38-28 to set up a clash with defending champions Glenmuir who turned back May Day High 32-25.

In the junior semifinal Holmwood led 8-7 after the first quarter before taking a 18-13 lead at half time.

Glenmuir took control of the third quarter and outscored Holmwood 10-6 to reduce the deficit to one, 24-23, going into the final quarter. Holmwood's players, however, regained control to win by five-goal margin.

"I am very proud of my juniors. I have worked tirelessly with them all season and I think they peaked at the right time," said coach Carline Graham-Powell.

Holmwood led all the way in the senior semi-final. They had narrow leads after the first two quarters but the coach made several tactical changes going into the third quarter and they rushed into a 31-21 lead before closing out the victory.

"I was not worried when I saw the scores so close earlier because I knew that the team was much better than Denbigh," said Graham-Powell.

Meanwhile, home team Manchester pulled off a big upset by getting by Denbigh 30-22 in their junior semifinal.

Manchester made their intentions clear very early. After the first quarter the scores were tied at 6-6 before Manchester took a 13-11 lead at half time.

With excellent play from goal defence Alia Morgan and goal attack Britaney Daley, Manchester outscored their opponents 12-4 in the final quarter after both teams were tied 18-18 after the third quarter.

Coach Simone Smith was not surprised her team won after entering the match as the underdogs.

"I knew the potential of the girls and was always confident of victory as most of these girls are coming from playing under-14 together where they have done well and they have the chemistry," said Smith

Glenmuir's senior team stayed on course to defend their title after a win over the vastly improved May Day. The defending champions led from start to finish with quarterly scores of 8-6, 15-12, 24-19 and 32-25.