Netball Super League | Patience is Key, Says Severn Stars’ Captain

Severn Stars’ Captain, Maryka Holtzhausen, says patience will be key as her team looks for its second win of the season, when they take on Manchester Thunder this weekend.

The South African star, who missed the first two games due to international duties in the Quad Series, made a winning return in her first game back, against Celtic Dragons.

Holtzhausen says for the team to continue their winning ways against second-placed side Thunder, on Saturday (February 9, 6pm), they must be patient in both attack and defence.

“Our match against Thunder will be a good challenge for us,” she said. “They are a team who have been playing together for a long time. One of their strengths is their patience with the ball on attack and relentless defence.

“Patience is key for us – on attack and defence. On attack we will need to keep possession, no matter how hard we need to work to get it to goal, and on defence we will need to be patient, trusting our structure and work hard till we turn ball over.”

This will be Stars’ second home game of the season, and its first at the University of Worcester Arena, its home venue for the last two seasons. This year matches are being played at both the University of Worcester and University of Gloucestershire, who co-own the franchise

After snow saw last week’s match against Team Bath postponed, Stars will be hoping to pick up where they left off two weeks ago, when they sealed their first win of the season against Celtic Dragons 57-40, at the University of Gloucestershire Arena. Thunder will come to the game full of confidence too, having won all three of their matches so far this season.

“We’re excited to be back at the University of Worcester Arena, and hoping to get a win for the fans there as well,” said Holtzhausen. “There is a great atmosphere in the squad, especially after a great home win. And having our match against Bath postponed due to snow has really got us excited about getting out there again.

“Although we would like to have played last week that is how it is. We can only be positive about it and see it as an extra week of training to improve in all areas of our game plan. I can’t wait to get out there for our next match though.”

She added that, in order to back up their first win, Stars were continually looking to improve.

She said: “It’s great to train in such a positive environment. Obviously there are still many things we would like to improve on and be better at going into the next game, but we are working on doing those things better in training every week. I believe a good aim is continued improvement, sticking to structures and implementing the game plan each week. If we stick to what we do best the results will speak for themselves.”

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