KZN’s nine teams drop the ball
LADY luck turned her back on the KZN teams at the 2017 Champions Cup hosted by Volleyball South Africa (VSA) at UKZN’s Westville campus sports centre over the weekend.
None of the host province’s nine men’s or two women’s teams could reach the semi-final stage.
KZN’s best performers were its men’s teams: Liberte, UKZN and DUT who exited the tournament at the quarter-final stage. Vaal University of Technology (VUT) beat Liberte (3-1), while UKZN and DUT were edged out by Kamplits and Uni Jozi (UJ) by the same margin.
While local fans were saddened by the early exit of their teams, the action-packed volleyball in the crucial knock-out stages kept the crowd entertained. The women’s final between Vaal University of Technology (VUT) , last year’s silver medallists, and Limpopo’s Kamplits was a five-set thriller (25-17; 25-20; 15-25; 18-25; 15-8) won by the latter.
After having taken the first two sets (25-17; 25-20) an over-confident Limpopo outfit were staring at defeat when the fired-up VUT levelled matters.
When setter of the tournament Sina Rakumakwe turned on the magic with her sublime setting, it unleashed her attackers Tebogo Sejewe (best attacker) and Thanda Majaha, who combined well to put the match beyond the reach of VUT as they posted a confident 15-8 final set score. It was Kamplits’ first win in a final at this level of competition.
In the men’s final clash between Kamplits and Uni Jozi, UJ’s coach Hugan Coopasamy must be credited for plotting the downfall of the highriding team from Limpopo whose attackers, the tall and lanky Jonas Mothobi and Natahniel Rafapa, were constant thorns in the sided of UJ.
After winning a hard-fought first set by a 25-22 margin, Coopasamy’s charges had only themselves to blame for losing the tightly contested second 26-24.
UJ’s vastly experienced playmaker, Jeremy Sunker (the tournament’s best setter), restored confidence in his attackers by playing the quicker set that allowed them to power their way past their opponents’ blockers.
Kamplits twin destroyers, Rafapa and Mothobi, were not given much chance of upsetting the Gauteng lads as Keifer Govender (best attacker) and Martin Zulu, who picked up the most valuable player accolade, posted a 25-16, 25-23 scoreline to lift the Champions Cup silverware for the fourth time in the cup’s 17-year history.
The tournament’s top two teams in both genders will represent South Africa at the African Zone 6 club championship later this year.