Kovsies beat Tuks 62-61 in a thrilling Varsity Netball match at the Coetzenburg Indoor Centre on Tuesday, while there were also Round 4 wins for NWU, Maties and the Madibaz.
There wasn’t much to choose between the tournament’s two most successful teams throughout the 60 minutes of exhilarating netball. It all came down to execution and opportunities taken in crucial moments, with Kovsies coming out on tops as evident by the 41 turnovers they made compared to Tuks’ 33 and their eight intercepts compared to their opponents’ five.
The Pretoria team started the match at a high intensity, clearly intent on restoring their honour as defending champions following their shock loss to NWU on the first day of this year’s tournament. They raced into a 10-5 lead, with shooters Chantelle Swart and Alice Kennon successfully splitting the Kovsies defenders, but Claudia van den Berg did the same at the other end of the court and the first quarter ended with Kovsies 16-15 in the lead.
Tuks staged a comeback in the second quarter, limiting their mistakes and keeping the error count down. With the margins so small in a match like this, they stuck to their game plan and kept chipping away at the deficit. It served them well as the half-time score was 29-29.
The third quarter was a tense affair with the match still very much in the balance and everything to play for. The hooter for Tuks’ Power Play was sounded with the team trailing by a single point. They went ahead with the first goal (worth two points) before Kovsies struck back with two goals (four points) and then Tuks came back with two more goals (four points). Kovsies, however, weren’t phased and they finished the quarter with a three-goal cushion (48-45).
Kovsies were still in the lead going into the last two minutes of the match when their Power Play was called. The benches of both teams were out of their seats as Tuks scored three goals for six points while Kovsies could only manage one goal for two points.
Tuks nearly snatched victory at the death but had to settle for two bonus points, for scoring 50-plus points and losing by seven or fewer goals.
Kovsies captain Sne Mdletshe was deservedly named the FNB Player of the Match for her unbelievable work rate on wing defence. She made life difficult for the Tuks players trying to feed the ball into the goal circle while also picking up more than enough loose balls in mid-court. Mdletshe said she was pleased with both her own and the team’s performance. She added that they played well as a unit and achieved what they had set out to do, in getting a good turnover conversation rate.
NWU and UJ began the day’s proceedings with a nail-biting affair that the Potchefstroom team eventually clinched 68-63.
It was a battle between former varsity players in their current coaching capacities – Elsunet du Plessis at NWU and Bongi Msomi at UJ.
NWU made full use of the court’s width in the first two quarters (15-15, 34-27). In the third quarter, UJ made an impressive comeback and managed to close the gap to 47-44.
The scores were level at 63-63 with two minutes left on the clock, before the combination of Elmere van der Berg and Jessica du Plessis in the NWU goal circle secured the victory.
It was UJ’s second defeat of the tournament, but Msomi was ecstatic with her team’s performance considering they had lost by a substantial margin not too long ago to the same opponents.
Maties convincingly beat UWC 64-32 in the Western Cape derby. The 2015 and 2019 finalists asserted their dominance from the first whistle and kept the pressure on their opponents, turning the ball in mid-court and back towards their own goal circle where captain Sian Moore kept the scoreboard ticking over.
Instead of coming out from behind the Matie defenders and sticking to short, sharp passes, UWC tried to move downcourt with long overhead passes. This was to no avail, with Maties keeping the lead after each quarter – 19-4 (first), 30-14 (second) and 47-24 (third).
In the last match of the day, the Madibaz beat TUT in a one-sided affair.
The team from Gqeberha set up their victory in the first two quarters (21-6, 31-15) when their opponents seemed disjointed. Even though the game slowed down in the third quarter, TUT showed signs of what they are capable of and closed the gap slightly on their opponents (36-21).
In the last quarter, play became decidedly scrappy, and while the Madibaz secured a comfortable 45-25 victory, they failed to earn a bonus point for reaching the 50-point mark.
Round 4 results:
NWU 68 UJ 63
FNB Player of the Match: Cornelia Mupenda (UJ)
Maties 64 UWC 32
FNB Player of the Match: Caleigh Stuart (Maties)
Kovsies 62 Tuks 61
FNB Player of the Match: Sne Mdletshe (Kovsies)
Madibaz 45 TUT 25
FNB Player of the Match: Noluthando Maliehe (Madibaz)
Round 5 fixtures (Wednesday, 25 August):
Tuks vs UJ (13:00)
NWU vs TUT (15:00)
UWC vs Kovsies (17:00)
Maties vs Madibaz (19:00)
– All matches will be broadcast live on SuperSport Variety 4 (DStv channel 209)
By Liryn de Jager
Photo: Kevin Sawyer/Varsity Sports
