{"id":72901,"date":"2025-05-21T11:53:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T09:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=72901"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:53:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T09:53:58","slug":"eunice-menlopark-and-waterkloof-going-for-st-annes-cup-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=72901","title":{"rendered":"Eunice, Menlopark and Waterkloof going for St Anne’s Cup gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eunice
Eunice captain Bianca Rees-Gibbs on the charge at the 2024 St Anne’s Cup. Photo: Brad Morgan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fourth, fifth, and sixth. Those were the positions in which Eunice High<\/strong>, Ho\u00ebrskool<\/strong>\u00a0Menlopark<\/strong>, and Ho\u00ebrskool\u00a0Waterkloof<\/strong> finished in the inaugural edition of the St Anne’s Cup<\/strong> last year. A lot has happened since then. A lot has changed, including the teams.<\/p>\n

The trio returns with bigger hopes and the experience and skills to improve on their 2024 showings.<\/p>\n

Eunice will arrive at St Anne’s<\/strong> with a confident bounce in their legs following a positive outing against their Free State rivals, Oranje <\/strong>on Tuesday afternoon. Storm Harris<\/strong> scored for coach Nika Coertzen<\/strong>‘s sids as they played to a 1-1 draw with their Bloemfontein rivals.<\/p>\n

“It’s always a privilege to take the field against any opponent, especially with the margins so tight between teams. Facing a strong Oranje side ahead of the weekend is ideal preparation, helping us adapt to high-intensity games, learn from our mistakes, and improve for what’s ahead,” Coertzen told SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a> ahead of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Eunice is in Pool C<\/strong>, up against St John\u2019s DSG<\/strong> and Noordheuwel<\/strong>. They open their challenge on Friday afternoon at 14:15 against Noordheuwel, one of four newcomers to the event.<\/p>\n

Menlopark, meanwhile, has the wind beneath their wings following a dominant showing against Ho\u00ebrskool Eldoraigne<\/strong> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Monique Gerber<\/strong> powered them to an 8-1 win over Eldos<\/strong><\/em> with a hattrick. Karla van Rooyen <\/strong>contributed two goals to the effort, while Zo\u00eb Badenhorst<\/strong>, Anja Steidler<\/strong>, Ininke Human<\/strong>, and Chanette Jansen van Vuuren<\/strong> chipped in with a goal each.<\/p>\n

Coach Brad Brook’<\/strong>s side has spent the season fine-tuning their cohesion and the comprehensive win is a sign that it has grown by leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n

“We are very excited about St Anne’s Cup,” he declared. “Like any tournament, the plan is to win the title. But we will be happy with a podium finish because it will be an improvement on our performance from last year.”<\/p>\n

Menlopark faces Worcester Gimnasium<\/strong> and the hosts, St Anne’s, in Pool A. They’ll first see action at 13:00 on Friday afternoon when they go toe-to-toe with Worcester Gim.<\/p>\n

Coach Omari Pienaar-Geyer\u2019s<\/strong> Waterkloof team also heads into the showpiece off the back of a victory, and it was a good one. They beat Affies<\/strong> 1-0 in their last assignment on 12 May. They were scheduled to play Menlopark after that, but the match was cancelled because a number of their players were unwell.<\/p>\n

“We had a few good training sessions and could work on one or two things,” Pienaar-Geyer said of Waterkloof’s preparations.<\/p>\n

They’ll have a game against Zwartkop<\/strong> before they hop on the bus to St Anne\u2019s. Pienaar-Geyer is confident her side has what it takes to make a run at the Cup. They will, however, tackle the task one game at a time.<\/p>\n

“The first step is for us to surpass last year’s finish and improve on the sixth place. We also want to showcase a quality brand of hockey and be more consistent in games.<\/p>\n

“We want to be consistently doing the right things. We are looking forward to a great weekend of hockey at a well-organised tournament,” Pienaar-Geyer explained.<\/p>\n

Waterkloof’s Pool B opener will be at 13:00 on Friday afternoon against The Wykeham Collegiate (TWC<\/strong>). Their group also includes the defending champion, St Mary’s DSG, Kloof<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fourth, fifth, and sixth. Those were the positions in which Eunice High, Ho\u00ebrskool\u00a0Menlopark, and Ho\u00ebrskool\u00a0Waterkloof finished in the inaugural edition of the St Anne’s Cup last year. A lot has happened since then. A lot has changed, including the teams. The trio returns with bigger hopes and the experience and skills to improve on their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":46133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72901","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\/72901","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=72901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}