No fewer than eight current and past Varsity Netball players have been selected in the SA squad for the 2015 Diamond Challenge in June in Durban.
UP-Tuks, who finished second in the 2014 tournament – suffering their only defeat of the campaign in the final to UFS-Kovsies, have a handful of players in the squad that includes 2014 Players’ Player of the Year, Shadine van der Merwe.
Lenize Potgieter, Melissa Myburgh, Lindie Lombard and Izette Lubbe are the other Tuks players in the squad and are joined by 2014 Player of the Tournament Karla Mostert of Kovsies.
Two other players, who played in the 2013 edition of the tournament, NWU-Pukke’s Elsunet du Plessis and Kovsies’ Adele Niemand are also included in the squad of 13 players that will take to the court against the best Africa has to offer.
Launched in 2012, the Diamond Challenge is a tournament that pits Africa’s strongest netball nations against each other and serves as a platform for the development of netball in Africa.
The tournament, which runs from June 14-18 in Durban, will feature the national teams of Uganda, Zambia and Malawi – each of which has sizeable expatriate communities living in South Africa.
SA National Squad: Lenize Potgieter, Melissa Myburgh, Lindie Lombard, Izette Lubbe, Shadine Van der Merwe (all UP-Tuks), Precious Mthembu, Bongi Msomi, Nokubonga Sibiya, Zukelwa Cwaba, Elsunet du Plessis (NWU-Pukke), Karla Mostert, Adele Niemand (both UFS-Kovsies), Phumza Maweni.
