Maties excel at USSA championships across the country
Maties Sport ended a successful University Sport of South Africa (USSA) campaign, with significant achievements in all of the participating sporting codes.
The Maroon Machine took home gold in the A Section of women’s water polo and silver in women’s basketball and men’s cricket. While adding multiple bronze for tennis, men’s water polo, doubles in table tennis and men’s stroke play for golf. Additionally, the student-athletes received several impressive individual accolades.
Cricket
Maties Cricket were based in Bloemfontein for their USSA championships, a promising start on day one against defending champions UP-Tuks kicked off their campaign with a winning start.
The momentum continued throughout the week, with group stage wins against Wits and CUT landing Maties in a semi-final against Kovsies. Kovsies posted a total of 222 to chase and captain Lehan Botha was up to the task scoring a century of 71 balls and steering the Maroon Machine to victory. Botha put in an all-round effort with bat and ball (2 wickets) and deservedly came away with the Man of the Match award.
Maties would play NWU Pukke in the final at USSA. Maties were put in to bat first and after a slow start and the loss of a few wickets, Kaden Solomons and Ross Boast posted a 53-run partnership to steady the innings with a decent total on the board. NWU would have to chase 225 to win. It was not meant to be as the side from Potch would win by 9 wickets.
At the award ceremony the following Maties were included in the USSA squad:
- Lehan Botha
- Anda Dilima
- Ross Boast
- Kent Goedeke
Basketball
Stellenbosch University played hosts to USSA Basketball and our Maties teams were determined to put on a show.
After some impressive performances by our Maties women’s basketball team, with wins in all their group stage games against UP-Tuks, TUT and UJ. The side would book their spot in the semi-final against VUT. In a tight encounter against VUT, Maties would keep their cool and claim the victory at 51-45 and secure a place in their first ever USSA Section A final.
Maties took on Wits in the final, but the Gauteng side proved too strong on the day and ultimately claimed the trophy. However, Maties women’s team having been runners up in Section B last year to Section A silver medallists this year shows a significant improvement in performance for the team.
The men’s team had a bag of mixed results at the tournament but finished strongly against UP-Tuks where they showed great character to come back and win the game 51-46. They finished fifth overall.
Maties Basketball had a number of individual accolades given to their players at the end of USSA Basketball. The standout being Dineo Fanampe being the recipient of the MVP award for the women’s A Section. Awards breakdown as follows:
Women:
A Section All Star Team
– Ingrid Tredoux
– Dineo Fanampe
Tournament MVP
– Dineo Fanampe
National Squad
– Ingrid Tredoux
– Dineo Fanampe
– Nina Kabalin
Men:
A Section All Star Team
– Junior Kidimbu
National Squad
– Theodore Moss
Water Polo
Maties water polo made it six years with consecutive USSA titles for the women’s team in East London. After a competitive tournament came to a close, the women were crowned champions while the men took home the bronze medal.
Maties women’s team took on IIE Varsity College to claim a convincing win, defeating the side 11-5 and continuing to take claim stake of the gold medal at USSA. The men’s side battled it out with UP-Tuks for the dirty gold, it was just one goal that separated them at the final whistle. The game ended 6-5 to Maties.
Golf
Though golf is an individual sport, the Maties team banded together to bring about some exceptional performances in Bloemfontein. The team consisted of four players, Alan Borkowski, Keagan Rousseau, Luke Plotz and Andre Theron who as a team were awarded bronze in stroke play and narrowly missed out on a podium spot coming fourth in match play.
Tennis
After missing out on the bronze last year, Maties were determined to be in the medals at this year’s edition of USSA Tennis. Although the team missed out in the semi-final against UP-Tuks, the Maroon Machine would be victorious against Kovsies and secure the bronze medal after a tough week of competition.
Two Maties players were selected for the FISU squad namely: Erine Lategan and Jason Fogle. Fogle also received the award for MVP in the men’s section.
Table Tennis
Maties improved on their performances from last year, coming in the top five in both singles and doubles categories. Dewald Swanevelder landed the fourth spot in the men’s singles category while he and doubles partner Le Roux Strydom grabbed bronze. The women put up a valiant effort in the doubles category against UKZN but Elizabeth Knoesen and Christina Malan had to settle for fourth place. Maties Table Tennis chairperson Dewald Swanevelder was also included in the USSA Table Tennis committee as an additional member.
Football
A difficult week in Kimberley saw both our men’s and women’s teams unfortunately be relegated to the B Section due to our results from the week. While this year may not have gone as planned, it’s only the beginning. The relegation back to the B Section for both teams is an opportunity to rebuild, grow, and come back stronger next year.
Chess
The team consisted of eleven players, with eight of them making their USSA debut. Maties Chess had three of their players place in the Top 20 of the Open Section, with Simamnkele Hemeni and Nico Martin placing 7th and 8th, and Emil Schnabel at 17th respectively. In the women’s section, there were good results with Zantè Palmer placing 15th and Thushani Naidoo at 24th, both on their debut.
By Kimara Singh