Success for Tuks in Varsity Netball after years of disappointment
After years of stumbling over the last hurdle, Tuks’s netball team on Monday night finally managed to win the Varsity Netball tournament.
Mission accomplished was the first thought that crossed Lungile Mthembu’s mind the moment the final whistle blew, and Tuks officially became the Varsity Netball champions for the first time.
There was a good reason for it. In the past five years, it was a case of Tuks Netball not being able to finish what they started.
By beating Northwest Pukke 43-41 in the final played at the University of Pretoria’s Rembrandt Hall on Monday, Tuks made local sports history. It is the first time that one university manages to win six out of the ten Varsity Tournaments.
Tuks was also victorious in football, athletics, rugby, women’s hockey. Assupol-Tuks Cricket lost in the Varsity-final against Pukke while Tuks women’s mountain bike team finished second in the Varsity Mountain Bike Challenge and the men’s team third.
Pundits predicted that the final between Tuks and Pukke in Rembrandt Hall was going to be a “Battle of the Titans”. The players did not disappoint. The outcome of the game was in the balance up until the final minutes.
When Ine-Mari Venter sunk Tuks’s second last goal to give her team a one-minute goal advantage an excited crowd started to count down the final seconds. The clincher came when Venter scored again a few seconds later to ensure a fairytale finish for the home team.
Mthembu who played a brilliant game at wing-defence justly received the player of the match-award.
“Getting the award is something I will cherish, but tonight was never for us about individual performance. We as a team had a mission, and that was to win. We owed it to our captain, Shadine van der Merwe, as it was her last Varsity Tournament Game. We wanted to give her something she will remember,” Mthembu said after the game.
Mthembu describes Van der Merwe as one of the best players and captains.
“Shadine leads by example on and off the court. There are no half-measures when she plays. She always gives a 100%. On the court, you know that she has got your back if you should make a mistake. There is no place in her vocabulary for giving up.”
Mthembu was equally full of praise for the role their coach, Jenny van Dyk, played in the team’s victory.
“As a coach, Jenny leaves absolutely nothing to chance. When it comes to analysing the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, she is a class of her own. We knew what to do the moment we stepped onto the court. The only challenge that remained was to stick to our game plan.”
Tuks gave their fans quite a scare in the third quarter when they gave way an eight-point lead to trail by two goals with only 15 minutes to play left.
“Jenny was the one who calmed us down, telling us to forget what just happened on court and refocus. Her final advice was to think the score was 0-0 and we had 15 minutes left to win the game.”
Van Dyk made South African netball history becoming the first to coach teams to win the Brutal Fruit Series, the Senior Provincial Tournament and the Varsity Netball Tournaments in the same year.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
