The season-opener, which took place at the university\u2019s Second Avenue Campus, attracted a record 53 teams from across the metro.<\/p>\n
Although the students led by a goal at halftime, it was experience that eventually won the day for a strong senior side, which featured former Protea players Zanele Mdodana and Lana Krige.<\/p>\n
Mdodana represented South Africa at last year\u2019s World Cup, while Krige is a former vice-captain of the national team and current SPAR-NMMU head coach.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s netball manager Theresa le Roux said the youngsters played a fast and expansive game, but their momentum was curbed due to a number of unforced errors. \u201cA lot of balls went out of court because they tried risky passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe older players, on the other hand, stayed calm and stuck to their gameplan, playing the short passes and making sure they got the ball through to the shooters.\u201d<\/p>\n
She singled out Mdodana in goal defence and goalkeeper Queenie Diko for their strong defensive play. \u201cThey played really well and kept turning the ball over for their team.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the other pool finals, Framesby demolished NMMU\u2019s second-tier team 31-4 in the A-reserve section, while Despatch took the B section from NMMU 1 in a narrow 15-12 win.<\/p>\n
Valencia beat Malherbe 1 (21-13) for victory in section C, with KwaMagxaki topping pool D ahead of Otto du Plessis (11-5).<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s league, NMMU once again dominated with NMMU 1 trouncing NMMU 2 (19-10) to take the top spot.<\/p>\n
Players in the winning sides received prize money in the form of SPAR gift vouchers to a total value of R7 200.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s netball chairperson Melinda Goosen said the tournament, which had grown substantially due to SPAR\u2019s involvement over the past three years, was the club\u2019s biggest event of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve come on board and added to this tournament in such a huge way. All the clubs now want to come and play here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goosen said organisers had been overwhelmed by the growing response \u2013 36 teams had entered the previous year.<\/p>\n
In another joint initiative, the SPAR-NMMU netball club will host a coaching clinic at Grens High School in East London on Friday, one of a series of clinics held throughout the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n
This will be followed by the SPAR Emma Kirchoff Memorial Tournament at Stirling High School on Saturday.<\/p>\n
![\"SPAR-NMMU](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/4d41d_SPAR-NMMU_tourny.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
NMMU 3’s wing attack Linda Odolo (with the ball) in action against Framesby at the SPAR-NMMU Netball Tournament at the Second Avenue Campus in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Photo: SPAR<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Age triumphed over youth as the NMMU 1 alumni beat the NMMU 3 students 14-10 in a closely contested A-section final at the SPAR-NMMU Netball Tournament in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. The season-opener, which took place at the university\u2019s Second Avenue Campus, attracted a record 53 teams from across the metro. Although the students led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-8826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}