The one thing that is certain when Tuks and Maties clashes are that it is going to be a humdinger no matter on which sporting field.

Tomorrow night's Varsity Netball final in Tuks's Rembrandt Hall is going to be no exception. The statistics show that Tuks is the only unbeaten team in the tournament, but then again Maties is one of only three teams this season which has been able to get the better of them.

What makes Maties difficult opponents, according to Jenny van Dyk (Tuks head coach) is that they got a unique way of playing.

"The past few days as a team, we took time off to analyse Maties game plan. We have identified three aspects of their play where we are aiming to disrupt them. The quicker we can do so in the final, the better. If a team's strengths are neutralised, you take them out of their comfort zone. It forces the opposition to rethink their strategy. That is when players start to doubt their abilities."

Getting her team to still perform to their best when under pressure is one of the aspects Van Dyk had to spend a lot of time working on. 

"It meant I followed a different approach in the buildup to this Varsity Tournament. Our training during the first four weeks had been quite intense. I kept on pushing every player to the limit. Often the players stepped on court feeling slightly fatigued. It meant mistakes that generally could have been prevented happened. Still, I was impressed by how they were still able to compose themselves dominating in most games. 

"The last two weeks, the intensity of our training was downtoned quite significantly. It made a huge difference. During last week's semifinal encounter against Northwest, we played some of our best netball. It is mostly to do with the players feeling revitalised."

 Something else that had been important to Van Dyk was to make sure every player got some game time during the tournament. 

"You don't want the team to get into a crunch situation. Then when it matters most, a key player gets injured and the player substituting has hardly played. It could cost you the game. I want to be able to replace players at any time during a match without affecting the intensity of our play dropping. The challenge, therefore, had been to ensure everyone understands what is expected."

Van Dyk views Chantelle Swart (goal attack) as one of the players who kept on playing better as the tournament progressed. 

"Chantelle has impressed me with the extra work she has done before each game. Like for example, analysing her opponent's strength and weaknesses and coming up with a strategy to neutralise their effectiveness. 

"Key to our success has also been how the older players, Tshina Mdau, Marlize de Bruin and Lungile Mthembu stepped up. Leading by example. Part of their motivation is that it might be the last time they are playing Varsity Netball."