Maties and national goalkeeper Hanli Hattingh has big ambitions but her focus on Maties winning Varsity Hockey has not changed.
She has her sights set on a number of international caps and international tournaments.
“At the moment my goal is to be involved in the national side at the World Cup in 2014.
“To get there I need to establish myself within the national set-up so that is my focus at the moment,” Hattingh told varsitysportssa.com.
The Maties side have been improving in all of their games during the Varsity Hockey Challenge and Hattingh has attributed that to a number of factors.
“We are a very close knit team which helped us bounce back after our opening loss to Pukke.
“Our coach has also made sure that we are very fit so out fitness is something that we pride ourselves on and we are fitter than some of the other teams,” she added.
There is a slight problem for Hattingh when it comes to her future in the Varsity Hockey competition because she might be heading to China with the national side for a training camp.
“We go to China on May 10 for a training phase.
“Our visas haven’t come through yet but the replacements we have are very good,” Hattingh mentioned.
The question was put to Hattingh, why she chose to become a goalkeeper and her answer was very simple: “When I was under-14 our goalkeeper went away for the weekend.
“We all had a go at keeping and I was chosen – I never went back out into the field,” she said casually.
Being a goalkeeper has, in the past, come with a number of connotations and Hattingh is out to change those.
“Being a keeper used to be seen as being for the bigger girls but I want to change that.
“It is a completely different game to playing in the outfield and I really enjoy being involved in the game a bit differently,” she mentioned.
The Maties girls take on their Cape rivals, UCT, in their first game of the next leg of Varsity Hockey on Saturday, May 11.
This game is followed by a fixture against NMMU on May 12 and then UJ on May 13 – which will be televised live on Supersport 5 at 2.30pm.
