{"id":45208,"date":"2024-05-17T10:38:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=45208"},"modified":"2024-05-17T10:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T08:38:11","slug":"garsfontein-relishing-st-marys-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=45208","title":{"rendered":"Garsfontein relishing St Mary’s challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Garsfontein
Garsfontein in action against Waterkloof in Pretoria on 10 May 2024. Photo credits: Karl Seebach<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein<\/strong> girls’ hockey side is on a mission to take their season up a notch this weekend when they travel to face St Mary’s Waverley<\/strong> in their annual derby in Johannesburg on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The meeting will be the first between the sides this year and it takes place on the Nathan AstroTurf<\/strong>, starting at 11:30<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The visitors have impressed in 2024 and will be eager to add a big name to the list of victories they’ve built up.<\/p>\n

Coach Charlene Jonsson’<\/strong>s troops have punched above their weight this season, producing impressive results against some of the country’s best teams.<\/p>\n

After starting brightly, with wins over Beaulieu College<\/strong> (4-1), Monument<\/strong> (7-0), and Noordheuwel<\/strong> (3-2) in pre-season encounters, the Pretoria side shifted their focus to the Saints Festival<\/strong><\/a> and picked up four wins from their five matches.<\/p>\n

Soon after, they headed to the St Mary’\u2019s Waverley Festival<\/a> <\/strong>and, up against the cream of the crop in South Africa, they finished 18th out of 32 teams.<\/p>\n

“We had a strong start, with good preseason results over Beaulieu, Monument, and Noordheuwel, whereafter we played in the Saints Easter festival, and had a good run,” coach Jonsson told SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong> ahead of the match.<\/p>\n

“At St Mary\u2019s Waverley, we had a tough tournament, with plenty of draws and some inconsistent results.<\/p>\n

“However, that set us up for the rest of our season, which has been full of good results thus far.”<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the Pretoria-based side took on the Bloemfontein powerhouses, Eunice<\/strong>\u00a0and Oranje<\/strong>. They performed impressively in both matches and fought their way to consecutive 2-2 draws.<\/p>\n

In their most recent action, they beat National All Girls Festival champions, Affies,<\/strong> 3-0, which was preceded by a goalless draw against Waterkloof<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“\"\"We are happy with the progress we have made since the St Mary’s Festival and firmly believe the tournament helped lay the foundation for a strong defensive and attacking outfit, and we look forward to the rest of our season’s fixtures,” Jonsson said.<\/p>\n

“Along with the back-to-back draws against Eunice and Oranje, we are still unbeaten in our Pretoria league.”<\/p>\n

In last year’s game against St Mary’s, Garsies won 2-0. If they’re to repeat that success, Jonsson<\/strong> said her side would need to be technically sharp and capitalise on their opportunities.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to take sound defensive structures, a good tactical game plan, and, most importantly, using your opportunities in critical moments, to manage the game,” she added.<\/p>\n

“It’s always a highlight fixture in our calendar to play St Mary’s Waverley, with all our teams.<\/p>\n

“Every year has been a tough battle and it’s never easy playing them in front of their home crowd. Coach Cindy Brown<\/strong> always brings the heat.”<\/p>\n

Garsfontein will look to their skipper Lize-Mari Claassens <\/strong>to lead them from the front.\u00a0Others to keep an eye out for include Andrea Groenewald<\/strong>, Minga Naud\u00e9<\/strong>, Arista van Zyl<\/strong>, Anje McLaren<\/strong>, Anjon\u00e9 Lourens<\/strong>, and Jana Seebach<\/strong>– all of whom have been selected to represent their provincial team at the SASHOC Nationals in Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n

In other matches around the Province, Zwartkop<\/strong> will host Eldoraigne<\/strong> in an FNB Classic Clash.\u00a0The hosts will be out to avenge a 0-1 defeat in 2023.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, EG Jansen<\/strong> will face Ho\u00ebrskool Oosterlig.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday, 18 May<\/strong><\/p>\n

08:45 – Zwartkop vs Eldoraigne
\n08:50 – EG Jansen vs Ho\u00ebrskool Oosterlig
\n11:30 – St Mary’s Waverley vs Garsfontein<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein girls’ hockey side is on a mission to take their season up a notch this weekend when they travel to face St Mary’s Waverley in their annual derby in Johannesburg on Saturday. The meeting will be the first between the sides this year and it takes place on the Nathan AstroTurf, starting at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":45210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45208","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\/45208","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}