The UP-Tuks women’s beach volleyball team seemed to have perfected the art of reaching the finals at national student tournaments. 

The recent USSA-final played in Durban was contested by UP-Tuks and UWC. This time around it was sweet revenge for the Capetonians as they got to beat Dominique Gachet and Khutso Letsoalo. 

Last year UP-Tuks dominated student beach volleyball winning the Varsity as well as the USSA Tournaments.

Letsoalo’s heroics on defence did not go unnoticed. She received the Defender of the Tournament Award.

Gachet said she could not have asked for a better teammate.

“Khutso was brilliant. I knew when the ball passed me that there is no need to worry. Somehow she will make sure it stays in play. She did not hesitate to put her body online time and again. Diving around like mad.”

Letsoalo saw her play on defence as just doing what she was supposed to do. 

“The better I am at defence, the easier it was for Dominique just to focus on where the best spot will be to put the ball out of reach of our opponents.”

Letsoalo reiterated that during any game communication is of the utmost importance.

“You got to strategies all the time. Sometimes things tend to get rough on the court. I might be frustrated, or ‘Dom’ because we lost a point. If it happens, it is essential that your teammate does not take it personally. Anything that might be said is in the heat of the moment. We are playing to win so there are times we bound to get slightly emotional.”

The Tuks players admit to being quite nervous when they stepped on court to play the final.

“We had to deal with a lot of expectations. Getting to the final was not seen as an achievement as UP-Tuks was the defending champions. We had to win. Tuks sport is about being the best. Unfortunately, we allowed our nerves to get the better of us. It led to us making silly mistakes, but that is no excuse. UWC was the better team on the day and deserved to win,” said Gachet.

The next challenge for the two of them will be to try and get selected for the UP-Tuks indoor volleyball team that is going to compete in the Zone Six Tournament. If they do it will be sort of the two psychology students last hurrah for UP-Tuks as next year, they will be playing for different universities.