“It is such an honour to play for ‘The Stripe’, you cannot help but to push yourself that little bit harder to win.”
That is how Natalie Esteves (Tuks women’s hockey captain) explained her team’s impressive start to their Varsity Hockey campaign.
Over the weekend in Stellenbosch Tuks won three of their first four games scoring an unbelievable 35 points and conceding only one. They beat Kovsies 6-0, the University of KwaZulu-Natal 15-0 and the Madibaz 14-0. Their only hiccup was in the game against Pukke which they lost 0-1 in spite of being on the attack for most of the match.
Inky Zondi (Tuks head coach) is quick to point out that it is too early to start celebrating as the “war” is far from being won. The real battle starts on Friday (12/05) when Tuks takes on Maties. The Stellenbosch team is the only unbeaten team in the competition having won their first four matches.
Saturday is another big game when they play against the defending champions, University of Johannesburg (UJ). Two years ago Tuks lost to UJ in the semi-finals. According to Zondi it would be a big mistake to underestimate UJ in spite of the fact that they are currently not one of the top four teams in the competition. He expects UJ to come out fighting in each of their last three games in a last-ditch effort to try and qualify for Monday’s semi-finals.
Things do not get any easier as on Sunday Tuks takes on Wits who is currently third on the log, also with nine points after four matches. The only reason Tuks is second on the log is because of a better goal difference.
What impressed most Zondi over the weekend was the way his players were consistently able to set up goal-scoring opportunities and then make it count.
“I am especially excited about how the players executed the play from penalty corners. We managed to convert quite a high percentage into goals. It is important to do so as tightly-contested games are often being won or lost on the ability of team to score from a penalty corner.”
Zondi wants his players to up their game over the weekend.
“It will be important that they are able to play a full 60 minutes of competitive hockey. We cannot afford any lapses.”
Esteves has certainly been leading her team by example. In three of the four games she scored goals. In the game against the University of KwaZulu-Natal she received the Player of the Match-award.
According to her it is easy to captain a team like Tuks.
“We might not be a team of individual stars. Our success can be ascribed to the fact that we play according to the philosophy of one for all and all for one. In other words we have this hunger to be the best and we really want to make Tuks proud. Our motivation starts the moment when we put on the white jersey with ‘The Stripe’,” said the third year BA Law-student.
By Wilhelm de Swardt
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