The University of the Free State got off to a flying start in the 2024 Varsity Netball in Johannesburg.

On Sunday, Kovsies made a big statement in the opening game of the tournament with a convincing victory against Wits, the hosts of the first two rounds.

The team from Bloemfontein turned in a near-perfect performance with a 78-33 drubbing of Witsies. There were more big results from the so-called big guns on Sunday with Tuks as well as NWU claiming big wins.

The defending champions Tuks ran riot with a 96-7 drubbing of the Tshwane University of Technology, while NWU beat the Madibaz 85-49. Meanwhile, UJ also made a big statement with a 46-38 win against Maties.

The Kovsies captain, Refiloe Nketsa, told OFM Sport that it’s important to be consistent going forward. “It’s literally for us about working on our consistency and showing up every time we get an opportunity to go on court,” said the Proteas star.

“That's one of our focuses on this campaign. We do know that we do have a great start to most of our games but as we go on it’s something that we’ve struggled with. So we’ve pinpointed what our problem was and it was one of our issues.

‘It really is a good preparatory game’

“So once again, it is something that we are working towards and us having played and displayed the netball that we did today shows that we are very much capable of rectifying what we didn’t have the previous years, or rather were struggling with. This win gave us a lot of confidence and it boosted us and now we can literally see the picture coming together. Now we know what to work on.

“So it is really a good preparatory game for NWU tomorrow.”

Monday afternoon’s game between Kovsies and the North-West University will get underway at 13:00.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg