The University of Pretoria’s attack has been a force to be reckoned with this season. Their precision in shooting can be rivalled by very few. The goal scoring duo of Chantelle Swart and Venetia Grobler have been one of the stand out performances of the season so far. With big shoes to fill after the successes of former Tuks shooters such as Lenize Potgieter, Melissa Kotze and Ine-Mari Venter, who is still part of the team, The young players have done well fitting into the Tuks set up.
The Pretoria born-and-bred Chantelle Swart is a third year BED FET & Senior Phase student who started playing netball at the tender age of 6. Her partner for most of the season has been sport science student, Venetia Grobler who stands at an impressive 1.89m and has been playing netball since 1st grade.in Ermello.
Asked what she attributes the success of the goal shooters so far, Swart said: “I think our attacking force has been very successful in this competition so far is because we train very hard to get the connections going and also to know exactly how and where to pass the ball to each other to make each other look good as well as being able to know where the other persons limits are.”
Chantelle also just achieved one of her career highlights so far, being selected and competing for the South African student team. While Grobler may be new to the team, her impact has been impressive.
Their coach, Jenny van Dyk, shares the same sentiments and added: “They have really been a pleasure to work with, they are coachable and will definitely contribute a lot in the future as well,” said Jenny van Dyk.
The Pretoria side was also responsible for the highest score and victory margin of the competition, putting 110 past VUT. Grobler was responsible for the majority of those points.
“A lot was on the line with that game. Everything had to go smooth and it did. We all played a big role in that game. I was just focusing on getting most of my shots in without losing concentration during the quarters,” recalls Grobler. She has also had an impressive conversion rate this year, which she has worked very hard on. “I put more practice and pressure on my shots during practice. And tried a different shooting style as well that works better for me.”
Swart wasn’t part of the match but recalls the extreme focus and determination of the team. “I wasn’t on the court when we played the match against VUT where the score was 100 plus, but you could see the team, that was on court, was extremely focused and determined because we knew we had a goal we needed to reach and they were making quite sure we reached that goal. We needed to make sure that the shooter gets the ball as close as possible to the post and to make sure that every goal counts and also just to get the ball through with speed and accurate passes.”
We asked Chantelle if they had any particular focus ahead of Monday’s semi-final, and she said: “Well it’s just another match, just with a ‘title’ but we are focused at training and just concentrating on what we can do better. We are also just doing some final strategic touches to make sure we pull it through on Monday.”
UP-Tuks will meet the Madibaz in the first Varsity Netball semi-final at the Rambrandt hall in Pretoria.
By Theriso Lethuloe
