The Aloes missed out on an opportunity to close the gap on division two log leaders- the Tornados after falling to a 37-36 defeat against the Comets in the Eastern Cape Derby. The Aloes restored faith in the third quarter when the score was 26 all, having trailed behind in the first two quarters. The Aloes made thirteen intercepts, but it was the Comets fifty-two turnovers that carried more weight. Seconds before the final whistle went off, Aloes Goal Shooter and captain- Jody Vorster had two clear chances to equalize but failed to slot the ball in safely.
Aloes’ coach- Sameshia Esau says the plan is to avoid setting up a semi-final clash with the Tornados, ‘’We want to maintain our position number two in our division because we don’t want to end up being number four and play against number one. Tomorrow’s game does matter, we have to win that game to maintain our position in division two. Esau also conceded that, the road to the final won’t be easy, ‘’We going to have to go back to the drawing board and see where our mistakes are. At the moment, in division two, the competition is not easy. Anybody can come up; everybody is coming hard as you can see with the Queens being last on the log, but they have been coming through very strong this week’’.
The Gauteng Jaguars won their nineth consecutive win in the 2021 Telkom Netball League, outlasting a brave Fireballs side for a 51-34 victory in the Gauteng derby today. The Jaguars suffered a blow after Wing Attack- Danielle van Zyl sustained an injury, but she was replaced by Phindile Sithole. The Jaguars’ defensive efforts pulled through with fifty turnovers but coach- Jenny van Dyk will still look to polish up on a few areas ahead of the semi-finals. Meanwhile, the Fireballs will need to pull out all the stops against the Crinums in their last round robin game in order to leapfrog the Kingdom Stars for a spot in the last four and also hold thumbs for the Flames to upset the Stars.
Jaguars coach- Jenny van Dyk lauded Danielle’s performance in the competition, ‘’She has had such a solid season and she is such a dynamic young player. She is so creative, and she has got speed for days. I think she had a bigger fright but there is definitely something that got dislocated some way or another. We will first have a look at it, we won’t take any big chances with her if it’s not necessary, but we can’t cancel her out completely’’.
