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Team SA’s netballers claim victory in their opening match against Malawi

Netball girls see off hosts in opening win

Netball girls see off hosts in opening win

By GARY LEMKE in Lilongwe

 

Team SA’s netballers picked up where they had left off in claiming the gold medal at last year’s Region V Games in Lesotho with victory in their opening match at the Griffin Saenda Indoor complex on Sunday.

Their opponents for their opening match were again Malawi, a dangerous side and possibly the biggest threat to Team SA winning gold later in the week. As was the case last year, Team SA emerged victorious over opponents who are nicknamed “Queens”.

In Maseru they had beaten Malawi 42-27 in their pool encounter and 33-26 in the final. On Sunday, the Class of 2022 prevailed 55-32, with the 23-goal gap being the widest between these two teams in those last three meetings.

Team SA might have been playing the early Sunday morning match but the girls were on the bus at 7am, but they were wide awake and roared off to the perfect start. They were 20-6 up after the first quarter, 33-15 at half-time, 42-21 after the third quarter and 55-32 at the end of the game. (Their quarter scores were 20-6, 13-9, 9-6, 13-11).

Team SA coach Emily Mathosa was pleased to get the opening game under the belt.

“The girls followed the game plan, which was to keep our own set of passes. I told the girls to start very fast, get into their heads. The danger was that Malawi were the hosts and had the crowd support and if we relaxed they would play with more confidence. So, we needed to break their confidence and built that 14-goal lead in the first quarter.

“We made minor mistakes here and there, and there is a lot to work on going forward. We need to improve across the full court and get things right from the goalkeeper to the goal shooter. We mustn’t rush things because that’s when we lose focus. We need to keep focus and also expect the games to be physical, because here in Africa the girls are physically strong.

“In the third quarter I made a lot of changes because we were in control and I wanted to give all the members of the squad some experience and see where they fit, so that third quarter allowed Malawi to become more competitive, but we still edged that period of play,” Mathosa added.

Sunel Smit started the game as goal shooter and played her part on Team SA keeping the scoreboard turning over, while captain Phopi Nematangari (WD) and Zane Bodenstein (GK) helped ensure the hosts were closed down on their attack.

Photos: ROGER SEDRES

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