VUT have made minimal changes to their squad and will be vying for an improved performance in the 2015 edition of Varsity Netball.
The Vaal students finished winless in 2014 but coach Puleng Tshabalala has retained all but two players who participated in the 2014 event and are hopeful of giving a better showing of themselves.
“We have really prepared well and everything is falling nicely into place. Obviously it was not nice ending 2014 at the bottom of the table but we have learnt many lessons from that tournament and will look to improve on the mistakes we made.
“In terms of the squad, we have retained 10 players and have brought in two new faces, so we are excited about heading into this tournament as we now know what the level of competition is like,” Tshabalala told varsitysportssa.com.
Tshabalala stated their 2014 performance came down to unfamiliar tactics of their opponents as well as inexperience but that has all changed now as they eye an improvement in their overall standings.
“We will be banking on the experience of the players who participated in 2014 and have set ourselves the target of finishing in sixth place, which will be an improvement of two places.
“In order for us to do that, we will need to win our matches against NMMU-Madibaz and UCT. We have already managed to beat UCT, at the USSA tournament, and we were highly competitive against NMMU. Minor errors cost us the win in that match, so if we can limit this mistakes, we will definitely be able to grab a win against them,” she added.
VUT gets their campaign underway in Bloemfontein against UJ on Sunday, September 6 before taking on defending champions UFS-Kovsies on Monday, September 7 in a bumper opening weekend.
