Defending Varsity Hockey champions, Maties will have it all to do in Johannesburg when the tournament gets back underway if they are to secure their semifinal spot and have a chance to defend their title.
Maties came away with three victories and one loss in Potchefstroom after the opening weekend of the tournament to find themselves in third place having racked up 13 points – five points behind second-placed UFS-Kovsies.
Midfielder Bronwyn Kretzman was a stand-out performer for the Stellenbosch ladies and managed to bag numerous individual awards in the process.
“I am very happy with my personal performance in Potchefstroom but there is always room for improvement. We have only had time for a recovery sessions this week but when we do the video analysis, I will be able to see which areas of my game I need to improve on.
“Overall, we are pretty happy with the way the weekend went. Ideally we would have liked to come away unbeaten but Kovsies played really well and we were bitterly disappointed with the outcome of that match.
“However, we are still in high spirits and look forward to another tough weekend of hockey in Johannesburg as we look to secure a spot in the semifinals,” she told varsitysportssa.com.
Kretzman celebrated her birthday in fine style against NWU-Pukke as she scored the only goal of the match to secure the victory – picking up the Jet Striker of the Match award – and admits that the standard of the game has really improved at university level.
“Hockey at university is always tough but the level is a lot higher this year. Teams know that Varsity Hockey is a big competition and they need to maintain a very high standard in order to compete and stake a claim for top honours.
“The new rules and the addition of the powerplay has brought a new dynamic to the game and I think that has helped to raise the bar in terms of performance for all the teams. There are no easy games in this tournament and we expect that to continue this weekend in Johannesburg,” she added.
Kretzman will be looking to improve on her Potchefstroom performance and hopes to continue contributing to her team in any way that she can in order to secure their place in the Top Four.
