This weekend, sport teams from Stellenbosch University (SU) will travel to different places in South Africa to compete in the various University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournaments taking place next week (29 June to 3/4 July).
Matie teams will be representing SU in badminton (Pretoria), cycling (Stellenbosch), golf (Port Shepstone), gymnastics (Potchefstroom), hockey (Pietermaritzburg), netball (Johannesburg), rugby (Johannesburg) and squash (Johannesburg).
The USSA Surfing tournament was held at Victoria Bay (George) from 24-26 June. By Friday morning four Matie men and two Matie women had progressed to the quarter finals.
The Maties will be looking for strong showings by both their rugby and netball teams.
Under the watchful eye of coach Christine Markgraaff-Behan the netball players have fostered a superb team culture and have grown into a tight-knit family.
Maties will face stiff competition from the likes of Tuks, Kovsies, NWU-Pukke, NMMU-Madibaz and UJ. Kovsies are the two-time defending Varsity Sports champions while Tuks won the 2014 USSA tournament. Maties ended in fourth place.
On the rugby front coach Chris Rossouw has selected a quality group of players to travel to UJ. All 26 players will have a chance to stake a claim for a place in next year's Varsity Cup. Captained by flank Beyers de Villiers the team has sixteen players with Varsity Cup experience and will look to start well in their opening match against Wits.
"This is a great opportunity for the younger team members to experience the team culture and the tournament plays a big role in our plans for next year," said Rossouw. Maties reached the semi-finals in 2014.
While the Steinhoff Maties Women's hockey team is the defending USSA champions, the Maties men are looking to set the record straight after an extremely disappointing fifth place in 2014.
The men are very motivated to not only improve on last year's performance but to win the title this time. Coach Neville Rothman and his troops have been working really hard the past few weeks. "The goal for USSA is simple: Win it!" said Rothman.
Maties are in Group A along with multiple defending champions UJ, UKZN and Tuks.
For coach Jenny King the first step is to make sure her women's team reaches the semi-finals, as they are in a tough group that includes UJ, Tuks and Varsity College. "To reach the final four is going to be a hard-fought battle in itself. Only then reaching the final will become a goal," she said.
According to King, her troops are willing and ready to handle the pressure that comes with the status of being defending champions. "There is only one way of handling the pressure and that is one game at a time with simple attacking and defensive plans and a huge amount of determination."
In the meantime, Maties Golf will be hoping to improve on their fourth place of last year. Tuks are the defending champions.
The team's captain, Christiaan Rossouw, made it clear that the team wants to win.
"Maties have a proud USSA record and we want to build on that. I believe that our team is strong enough to fight for the trophy and hopefully we'll bring it home this year."
Photo: Maties Hockey's women's team won the 2014 USSA tournament.
Clik here to view.
