The Madibaz women’s volleyball team crowned their year with victory in the Mayoral Cup after a remarkable rear-guard action in Uitenhage at the weekend.<\/p>\n
In a match that created a fitting finale to the competition, Madibaz defeated Port Elizabeth College in the tightest of finishes in Sunday’s decider.<\/p>\n
With the match deadlocked at 2-2, Madibaz volleyball manager Bernard Petersen said it looked all over for the varsity side when they trailed 14-9 in the fifth and final set.<\/p>\n
“At that stage, it looked certain that PEC, who needed only one point, would take the title,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Both teams produced some exceptional volleyball, but it was the fighting spirit, teamwork and amazing skillset of the Madibaz ladies which prevailed in the end.”<\/p>\n
He said they controlled the closing stages of the match to win the final set 16-14, taking the match 3-2.<\/p>\n
While the Madibaz men’s team lost in the semifinals, Petersen said they were generally satisfied with the overall performance.<\/p>\n
“The men’s team have the potential to perform a lot better than what they displayed at the Mayoral Cup. Maybe, with more intense training, planning and preparation, we will see a change in the results in the future.”<\/p>\n
He added that the team played some fine volleyball before losing 2-1 to eventual champions, PEC, in their opening game. They ended second in their pool and came up against (losing finalists) Volkswagen in the semis, where they went down 2-0.<\/p>\n
The Madibaz women won both their pool games 2-0, defeating Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and Volkswagen. They then came up against Despatch and advanced to the final after an injury saw their opponents default the match.<\/p>\n
Petersen said the teamwork among the women had been the key to their success.<\/p>\n
“Volleyball is a team sport and everyone forms part of a puzzle to ensure the end goal. With this said, however, we must mention our outside hitter, Friederike Hobein, who displayed an excellent level of volleyball.<\/p>\n
He said the student from Germany secured the majority of the points over the period of the Mayoral Cup.<\/p>\n
“But we played as a team under the captaincy of Rabi Mpuru and our different skillsets ensured overall success.”<\/p>\n
Petersen said the tournament wrapped up the Nelson Mandela Bay Volleyball Association programme for the year.<\/p>\n
“We have ended the season on a high and positive note. Exams are upon us and students are now able to shift focus and concentrate on being successful academically.”<\/p>\n
He said preparations for the Nelson Mandela Bay league would begin in early February, while the teams would also compete in the Eastern Cape varsity leagues.<\/p>\n
“These competitions will prepare us for the University Sport South Africa tournament that takes place in mid-year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Madibaz women’s volleyball team crowned their year with victory in the Mayoral Cup after a remarkable rear-guard action in Uitenhage at the weekend. In a match that created a fitting finale to the competition, Madibaz defeated Port Elizabeth College in the tightest of finishes in Sunday’s decider. With the match deadlocked at 2-2, Madibaz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1771,3045,2912,2800,3046],"class_list":["post-13114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-madibaz","tag-madibaz-volleyball","tag-mayoral-cup","tag-nelson-mandela-university","tag-volleyball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}