{"id":267405,"date":"2025-09-18T12:17:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/eikestadnuus\/?p=267405"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:17:38","slug":"semi-final-battle-looms-for-maties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/eikestadnuus\/semi-final-battle-looms-for-maties\/","title":{"rendered":"Semi-final battle looms for Maties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<p>The Maties netball team has advanced to the semi-finals of the Varsity Netball 2025 competition, following the final round of league fixtures on Monday evening (15 September).\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They will travel to Bloemfontein to take on defending champions UFS Kovies in the semi-finals at Callie Human Hall at 19:00 on Monday 22 September.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There they will look to overturning their fate, after suffering a 47-55 defeat at the hands of Kovsies in round seven, yet they did not go down without a fight. \r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both teams delivered high-intensity netball from the start. The Maroon Machine was on fire and ended the first quarter leading 12-10. \r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maties picked up where they left off in the second quarter, dominating play and scoring quick goals to maintain and extend their lead. \r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cheered on by their bench, Kovsies tried to fight back. Brilliant intercepts by Maties&#8217; Syntiche Kabuya, however, denied UFS the chance capitalise on their chances (HT: 29-23).\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the third quarter Kovsies staged a remarkable comeback. Playing at high tempo and gunning for every ball, they pushed Maties on the backfoot and led 37-40 after the third stanza.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final 15 minutes produced a physical and intense battle, with both sides pushing hard for a win. \r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maties put up a fight, but Kovsies didn&#8217;t slow down their attacking dominance and they secured the vital triumph.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Sunday (14 September), Maties secured a commanding 61-28 victory over Varsity College in the two sides&#8217; round six meeting.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Maties netball team has advanced to the semi-finals of the Varsity Netball 2025 competition, following the final round of league fixtures on Monday evening (15 September). They will travel 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Maass prepares to shoot for Maties during her side's match against Varsity College on Sunday. \r\nPhoto: Thando Jafta\/Varsity Sports","article_media_icon":"1","article_template":"news","author_byline":"","background_color":"","block_editor":"1","byline":"","cmplz_hide_cookiebanner":"","competition_end_date":"","contact_advertise_email":"","contact_advertise_phone":"","contact_editorial_email":"","contact_general_email":"","contact_general_phone":"","contact_office_hours":"","contact_physical_address":"","enabled":"","featured_image_custom_caption":"","featured_video_url":"","fields":"","font_body":"","font_header":"","frequency":"","headline":"Semi-final battle looms for 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Maties struggle to tame NWU Eagles in Varsity Netball clash","author":"Eikestadnuus","date":"4 September 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Maties Netball travelled up north for their third-round Varsity Netball clash against NWU at the NWU Mafikeng Great Hall in Potchefstroom.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sport&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sport","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/eikestadnuus\/sport\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Renezia Andrews, wing attack of Maties, goes aerial to win possession in her team's third-round Varsity Netball clash against NWU at the NWU Mafikeng Great Hall in Potchefstroom on Monday evening (1 September). The women from Stellenbosch dug deep in the physical encounter, especially in the final quarter, but suffered a 55-41 defeat at the hands of the home side. Both teams looked to establish dominance early in the outing, with the Eagles showing composure and grit to edge the first quarter 13-9. In the second quarter, the Maroon Machine managed to claw their way back, but the hosts still held on to a 22-16 lead at half-time. In the third quarter both teams had a resurgence of energy, but NWU's accurate attack and defensive stops allowed them to keep their noses in front (41-29). Maties threatened a late comeback in the last 15 minutes, keeping the home crowd on edge, but the Eagles' discipline and resilience saw them over the line. It's back to the drawing board for Maties Netball as they look to find winning ways in their next outings, a double-header at the University of Pretoria's Rembrandt Hall on Sunday 7 and Monday 8 September. In the competition's fourth round the Stellenbosch lasses, who are currently in sixth place on the log, will take on fourth-place Madibaz Netball on Sunday at 17:00, followed by their round-five fixture against hosts UP-Tuks Netball (seventh) at 19:00 on Monday. 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