The University of the Free State’s (UFS) women’s netball team is on the hunt for its fifth Varsity Netball crown.
With two wins in the remaining important matches, the team will edge closer to that dream. These matches are against the University of Pretoria (UP-Tuks) and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) on Sunday, 22 September, and Monday, respectively.
Wins will guarantee them a berth in the semifinal, set for 30 September, with the two winners thereof facing off in the final on 7 October.
Boasting four titles, the UFS women won the inaugural championship in 2013 and followed up the success by winning again in 2014 – then 2018, and most recently in 2021.
UP-Tuks is in second position as far as overall wins are concerned, with three titles (2017, 2019 and 2023), while the North-West University (NWU) Pukke is in third place with two crowns (2015 and 2016). The Stellenbosch University (SU) Maties last won in 2022.
The upcoming matches will end the campaign of at least four teams: those from position five and lower on the log in this competition featuring eight universities.
The Kovsie women are sitting pretty with 17 points, behind the undefeated University of Johannesburg (UJ), with 20 points. Kovsies disposed of Maties with 56 – 45 and the Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) Madibaz 79 – 26 to claim the top spot in matches played on 9 and 16 September. The only loss was against UJ (46 – 51) on 8 September.
The UFS players have managed to dust off the cobwebs to launch a serious campaign to annex this year’s championship and extend their claim on the Varsity Netball crown to five times.
UFS Kovsies hardly put a foot wrong putting on a perfect display of netball in their comprehensive victory over Madibaz at the Rembrandt Hall in Pretoria.
The player of the match was Kovsies’ Reratilwe Ke-Morena Letsoalo.
