{"id":43033,"date":"2024-04-26T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=43033"},"modified":"2024-04-26T12:15:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:15:07","slug":"thrilling-girls-hockey-action-to-light-up-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=43033","title":{"rendered":"Thrilling girls’ hockey action to light up Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Oranje<\/strong> and Witteberg<\/strong> headline girls’ hockey action in the Free State on Friday, while St Mary’s DSG (Kloof)<\/strong> and Voortrekker (Bethlehem)<\/strong> will meet in a contest that promises to light up Friday night in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n

Witteberg makes the trip to Oranje for a mouthwatering showdown. Gyster van Schalkwyk <\/strong>and his Oranje team returned home from a successful tour to the Cape last weekend, where they edged out Paarl Girls’ High School <\/strong>1-0, before settling for a 2-2 draw against Paarl Gim<\/strong> in a fiercely contested match.<\/p>\n

Coach Casey-Jean Terblanche’s<\/strong> side will be intent on halting Oranje’s positive run of results and will aim to build off of their 5-1 thrashing of Trio when last they played.<\/p>\n

Terblanche, a Eunice<\/strong> old girl who played SA Schools<\/strong> in 2016 and subsequently received her SA u21 colours, is moulding her team into a force to be reckoned with. In the preseason, she and her charges worked on reshaping Witteberg’s style of play into one that helps them create more 2-v-1 opportunities.<\/p>\n

“Given the speed of our players, infusing pace into our tactics was paramount,” explained Terblanche.<\/p>\n

As her team forges its path, Witteberg is focussed on securing victories beyond the scoreboard. They’re young and playing as a cohesive unit is something that they will consider as one of those wins. They will need to perform like a well-oiled unit if they’re to realise their ambition of clinching the Eastern Free State league title.<\/p>\n

“We also want to test ourselves against top-tier opponents to lay a foundation for the coming year,” Botha shared. They face a huge challenge against Oranje.\u00a0The Bloemfontein side is consistently outstanding.<\/p>\n

However, Botha has Amy Kotz\u00e8<\/strong> and Arn\u00e8 Maritz<\/strong>, who have both been in fine form, to lead Witteberg’s challenge. Kotze, who will be making her 70th appearance for the first team, will be keen to celebrate that milestone with a goal or two. Maritz, who bagged a hattrick in the 5-1 win over Trio, will be eager to further add to her rising tally of goals.<\/p>\n

Juan\u00e8 Loubser<\/strong> and Jun\u00e8 Lombard<\/strong> will reach their own milestones of 50 and 70 first-team caps respectively on Saturday, when they go up against the Free State u21<\/strong> team. Their star, Kotze, will swap her Witteberg kit for the provincial uniform.<\/p>\n

In KZN, Our Lady of Fatima<\/strong> will be chasing two wins in three days when they lock horns with their neighbours, Danville Park Girls’ High School<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Our goal, as a team, is to really show everyone that we can compete with the best and play a really exciting brand of hockey. We want to fight for top two in the KZN league this year and finish in the top 20 in the country,\u201d shared Matthew Smith,<\/strong> the Our Lady Fatima High School Sports Co-ordinator.<\/p>\n

The team, captained by Katrina De Carvalho<\/strong>, made their ambitions abundantly clear when they walloped Ashton<\/strong> 7-1 on Wednesday. However, they are not walking into the tie against Danville expecting a cakewalk. Although Fatima has already beaten Danville once this year – they defeated them 1-0 at the Spar Tournament – De Carvalho and her teammates remain wary of their opposition.<\/p>\n

“Danville is one of our rival schools, as we are in the same area. They are a tough fixture and [we] often have a nail-biting finish,” Smith explained.<\/p>\n

A lot of eyes will be on Our Lady of Fatima’s KZN u16 trio of Gabi Howarth<\/strong>, Mia Lopes<\/strong>, and Jenna Shaw<\/strong>. Lopes and Shaw will do their best to control the midfield while Howarth poses a goal-scoring threat up front.<\/p>\n

Kirsten Beneke’s<\/strong> Voortrekker (Bethlehem) goes head-to-head with St Mary’s DSG (Kloof). The tie will be the first of Voortrekker’s two in KZN over the weekend.<\/p>\n

“It is a big game for us as they are currently ranked fifth in the country and we are ranked 13th,” said Beneke.<\/p>\n

Carla Ann Mackay’s<\/strong> charges, on the other hand, head into the contest revitalised. Last week, they lost to their rivals, Durban Girl’s College (DGC)<\/strong> in a five-goal thriller<\/a>. St Mary’s put that 2-3 defeat behind them and stormed to a 6-0 win over Maris Stella in their next outing.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Anderson<\/strong> led the charge with four goals, and Nicola Forbes<\/strong> and Alex Bowyer<\/strong> scored a goal each. Mackay’s charges will be keen to string victories together over the weekend – they also face St Anne’s on Saturday – to keep their ambitions for the season within their grasp.<\/p>\n

Like Beneke, Mackay is expecting a difficult challenge, when the two sides face off. It promises to be a thrilling contest.<\/p>\n

FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Lady Fatima vs Danville, St Mary’s DSG (Kloof) vs Voortrekker (Bethlehem), Oranje vs Witteberg,<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/strong><\/p>\n

St John’s DSG vs Voortrekker (Bethlehem), St Anne’s vs St Mary’s DSG (Kloof), DGC vs Ashton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oranje and Witteberg headline girls’ hockey action in the Free State on Friday, while St Mary’s DSG (Kloof) and Voortrekker (Bethlehem) will meet in a contest that promises to light up Friday night in KwaZulu-Natal. Witteberg makes the trip to Oranje for a mouthwatering showdown. Gyster van Schalkwyk and his Oranje team returned home from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":43074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}