{"id":3531,"date":"2016-10-06T13:20:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T11:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3531"},"modified":"2016-10-07T11:21:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T09:21:03","slug":"madibaz-netball-team-in-shape-for-tuks-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/madibaz-netball-team-in-shape-for-tuks-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Madibaz netball team in shape for Tuks challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bound by an unshakeable spirit, the SPAR NMMU-Madibaz netball team are ready for their biggest Varsity Netball challenge when they tackle University of Pretoria (Tuks) in the semi-finals in Pretoria on Monday.<\/p>\n

Coach Lana Krige said they would not underestimate the task ahead of them against the log-leaders, but said the players were determined to prove their credentials.<\/p>\n

After setting themselves the target of ending at least fifth in this year’s tournament, the Madibaz exceeded that following a crucial victory over NWU-Pukke last month to finish fourth on the round-robin log, securing a spot in the play-offs.<\/p>\n

Krige is banking on the strong spirit they have created to give them a chance against the unbeaten Tuks outfit.<\/p>\n

Despite losing to the Pretoria team in the round-robin section, she said they were excited about meeting their highly rated opponents again.<\/p>\n

\"Sanelise<\/a>
Sanelise Mgijima of NMMU-Madibaz controls possession in their Varsity Netball match against UP-Tuks last month. Photo: Saspa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We played a Tuks side virtually at full strength and that is an advantage because the girls now know what to expect and we look forward to the challenge,” said Krige.<\/p>\n

“We know it’s going to be extremely tough and everything must be right for us to have a chance. But in our previous game we matched them for long periods and were only really outplayed in the power play.”<\/p>\n

In that power play, said Krige, Tuks scored 16 goals without reply to take control of a match which had been hard-fought until that stage.<\/p>\n

She added that they had been more successful in the power play against NWU-Pukke and it would be important to display the same sort of intensity against Tuks.<\/p>\n

“We have been building for a long time, trying to get the girls to play at that intensity for a longer time in our matches. The theme of our match against Pukke (which they won 38-34) was to stay in the game as long as possible.<\/p>\n

“If you can stay in it, then you can run with your opponents towards the end and you always have a chance.”<\/p>\n

Krige said the camaraderie they had built this season was the reason behind much of their success.<\/p>\n

“For me the big thing is building a team,” she said. “We don’t force any friendships but management have handled everything brilliantly.<\/p>\n

“We have worked to make sure there are no side issues to distract the players and from that point of view we have developed into a very happy camp.”<\/p>\n

She added that while they had set a goal of ending fifth, they were now eager for further success.<\/p>\n

“We wanted at least fifth position and would have been disappointed with sixth. But as soon as you achieve something a different goal sets in and now we don’t really just want to end fourth.<\/p>\n

“We know we have a tough match ahead but we also know that on the day anything can happen.”<\/p>\n

Madibaz Sport netball manager Theresa le Roux said they were extremely proud of what the team had achieved.<\/p>\n

“At one stage they looked to be fighting it out for fifth and sixth place, but they came through with a great win over Pukke. We are extremely happy that they have qualified for the play-offs.”<\/p>\n

Le Roux added that the last time the Madibaz had reached the semis was in 2012, when they ended third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bound by an unshakeable spirit, the SPAR NMMU-Madibaz netball team are ready for their biggest Varsity Netball challenge when they tackle University of Pretoria (Tuks) in the semi-finals in Pretoria on Monday. Coach Lana Krige said they would not underestimate the task ahead of them against the log-leaders, but said the players were determined to […]<\/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":[1911,1892,1809,1896,1897,1770,2038,1793,1898,2007,2048,2047,1893],"class_list":["post-3531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-lana-krige","tag-madibaz-netball","tag-madibaz-sport","tag-netball","tag-netball-news","tag-nmmu","tag-nmmu-madibaz","tag-pe-news","tag-spar","tag-spar-nmmu-madibaz","tag-tuks","tag-university-of-pretoria","tag-varsity-netball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531","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=3531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}