Cats Seal Netball Title

Tumelo Mouwane | Monday November 21, 2016 15:10

UB Crystals progressed to the finals after defeating northern region’s tough and youthful side, TASC 48-38. Cats in the second semi-final dealt with Orapa Wanderers 50-15.

In the third place play-off, TASC claimed bronze after defeating Wanderers 47-17 in match played under showers.

In the final, also played under rainy conditions, BDF Cats faced a relatively young Crystals and led 4-3 early on. With minimum mistakes and accuracy on the net, Crystals began to dominate and took the score to 6-4 at some stage. But the young side crumbled under pressure to surrender the first quarter 8-6. 

The army side took control henceforth leading 13-9, 26-20 and 29-22. Crystal’s improved speed and pass, threatened a comeback but Cats stretched their lead to eventually run out 35-30 winners to secure the title. Cats walked home P30,000 richer while Crystals, TASC and Orapa received P20,000, P17,000 and P12,000 respectively. 

Crystals coach, Abednico Chitelo said Cats were unpredictable. He further said preparation for the final was not easy.

“The reason why we didn’t play well in the first quarter was because we wanted to test a couple of players. In the third quarter, we wanted to adjust to what we had seen but that’s where we fell short.

“It wasn’t easy for us to prepare for this finals as the setup doesn’t allow us. We attend training with few players since some of them stay as far as Selebi-Phikwe, but I am happy with our performance,” Chitelo said. His counterpart, Mapene Ntwaagae said rain was a factor. She further said her squad went into the game knowing that they will win despite injuries.

“We could have displayed a far much better performance if it wasn’t because of the rain. We had several injuries but I like the way we handled affairs on the court.

“We went into the game knowing that they won’t defeat us but they will rather give us a challenging match.

I am totally happy about our performance,” Ntwaagae said.