Varsity Netball 2019 is something of the past, but not with without a couple of milestones that were recorded during the tournament.
The seventh edition of the tournament ended on Monday night with Tuks claiming their second title in front of their home crowd, beating Maties by 48-43. They became the first team to go through a Varsity Netball competition unbeaten.
Other notable achievements from this year’s competition:
* Nicholé Taljaard, captain and goal attack of Maties, earned the most (three) number of FNB Player of the Match awards.
* Lefébre Rademan, goal attack and captain of the Kovsies, became the first player after Ané Bester (née Botha) of Kovsies in 2013 to claim both the Player of the Tournament and the Players’ Player of the Tournament in the same year.
* Maties (second) and TUT (seventh) both enjoyed their joint best ever Varsity Netball campaign.
Like in 2015 Maties ended second and TUT also finished in seventh spot in 2013.
* Tuks join NWU as the second most successful team in the competition with two titles each behind Kovsies with three.
* Tuks as well as their captain Tshina Mdau appeared in a record fifth final.
* Rolene Streutker, goal shooter of the Kovsies, ended with the most number of goals – 286. Venetia Grobler (Tuks) was second with 274 and Sian Moore (Maties) third with 268. Moore finished with the highest goal average (85.6%) for shooters with 170 or more attempts.
There was a drop in the standard of the shooting. Last year four players – Sigi Burger (NWU, 94.2%), Moore (90.2%), Jaumbuaije Zauana (UWC, 89.8%) and Ine-Marí Venter (Tuks, 88.2%) – achieved more than 86%.
* Beverley Moyake, Goal Defence of UJ grabbed the most number (43) of interceptions. Lentsamang Motau (TUT) and Ané Retief (Kovsies) were in joint second place with 30 each.
* There was three new competition records:
Least goals scored by a team: 10 (TUT 10-77 Tuks)
Smallest winning margin in a semi-final: 2 goals (Maties 62-60 Kovsies)
Most goals scored in a semi-final: 122 (Maties 62-60 Kovsies)
By Ruan Bruwer
