The Southern Stings registered their seventh win in the Telkom Netball League after escaping past the Kingdom Stars with a 48-40 victory. Only one goal separated the two teams in the first quarter but the Stars’ defensive unit of Jeante Strydom, Precious Mthembu and Danelle Van Der Linde were very instrumental at the back as the KZN side managed to level matters at half time. The Stings switched things up from the third quarter, attacking voraciously upfront and shooters- Nichole Taljaard and Sian Moore’s fast footwork ensured they finish off the job by sinking in those goals.
Meanwhile, the Mpumalanga Sunbirds won their first game in the second leg after beating the Eastern Cape Aloes 45-43. A dog-eat-dog first quarter ended eleven all, but it was the Sunbirds who utilized their turnover balls to lead by two and three goals in the second and third quarter respectively. The Aloes who were mourning one of their former players and wore black bands around their arms, played it safe in the final quarter to minimize their mistakes and drew level in the last five minutes but Sunbirds Goalkeeper Tumelo Nkoe’s crucial intercept steered the team to a much-needed win by just two goals.
‘’I think our team needed this, really badly. Everybody just came out guns blazing, and we pulled through. Palesa played an excellent game and that helped a lot’’, Sunbird’s captain- Maryke Coetzee said. ‘’We are going to take it step by step because we need to have a few wins since we 5th now, hopefully that will change after today’’, she concluded.
In the third game of the day, the Tornados will remain at the summit of Division two after beating the Kingdom Queens 42-39. Tornados coach- Danlee Matthews will certainly be disappointed in her teams’ high error rate after they recorded ninety-five penalties in this game which saw the Queens close the gap at some point. Queens coach- Zola Starke was all smiles after the match despite losing the game and also commended her team for the tenacity showed on court.
