Namibia wins opening match of Debmarine Pent Series

WINDHOEK, 09 JUN  – The national senior netball team opened their campaign of the 2018 edition of the Debmarine Namibia Pent Series with a 50-33 win against their neighbours Botswana on Saturday.
The second edition of Netball Namibia (NN)’s senior international netball tournament, will see five teams competing against each other for ranking points.
Namibia has two teams competing against Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe at the Israel Patrick Iyambo Police College in Olympia, Windhoek. The championships will be held from 09 to 13 June.
In the opening match of the competition the Namibian senior national team showed characters as they lead the match from the first quarter to the last.
In the first quarter the home team led Botswana by a single point with a 10-9 score line.
In the second quarter, the Namibia girls increased their momentum with their goal attacker Anna Kasper who was on form in front of goals, taking a six-point lead through-out that quarter.
With the quarter approaching its end, their six-point lead was reduced when Kasper got a minor ankle injury and was substituted to receive medical attention. The second quarter ended 22-20 in favour of the home team.
The third quarter saw Namibia taking a five-point lead with a 34-29 score line and in the last quarter, they finished off their opponents with a 14 point advantage to take the game 50-36.
Speaking to the media after the game, Namibia’s team coach, Manuel Tjivera said the team played based on the instructions given to them.
“The girls applied what was told to them as we wanted them to put pressure on the Botswana defence which they did and we got our goals. We are now turning our attention to the next match of the competition which is tomorrow,” he said.
Namibia will now play Zimbabwe at 17h00 on Sunday while Botswana and Zambia will play in an early match at 15h00.
Namibia A, which was brought in to replace Uganda who pulled out of the competition on Thursday, lost their first match of the competition 57-39 to Zambia on Saturday.
Namibia is ranked 36th by the International Netball Federation (INF) out of the 41 countries ranked by the federation. Zambia is ranked 16th, Zimbabwe 15th and Botswana 21st.

NAMPA