The South African women’s U21 hockey team will play Ghana at 2pm at Randburg Hockey Stadium Saturday, in the finals of the Africa Qualifier tournament for the 2013 Junior World Cup.
With their places in the finals already booked after victories on Wednesday, the SA women used the last round of league matches on Friday as useful workouts ahead of Saturday’s title matches.
The SA women beat wooden-spoonists Zimbabwe 9-0, after leading 6-0 at half-time. Lilian du Plessis netted a hat-trick and Jacinta Jubb got a brace, with the rest of the goals going to Demi du Toit, Izelle Lategan, Erin Hunter (a superb strike that raised the roof of the net) and Tanya Britz.
The SA women should have the measure of Ghana in their final, having won the preliminary round match 4-0, but stranger things have happened.
Kenya’s women needed to beat Ghana by five clear goals to make the final but the Ghanaians were having none of that and ran out 4-0 winners.
Results: Ghana (1) 4 Kenya (0) 0 Scoring for Ghaha: Beatrice Wekesa, Pauline Naise, Nancy Wanjue (2) South Africa (6) 9 Zimbabwe (0) 0 Scoring for South Africa: Demi du Toit, Jacinta Jubb (2), Lilian du Plessis (3), Izelle Lategan, Erin Hunter, Tanya Britz Saturday’s Final Classification Fixtures: 9:00am (3rd/4th Place): Ghana vs Kenya 2:00pm (Final): SA vs Ghana * Zimbabwe women finish fifth Final Log in Brief: (Played, Goal Difference, Points) 1. South Africa P4, GD 26, Pts 12 2. Ghana P4, GD 4, Pts 9 3. Namibia P4, GD -4, Pts 6 4. Kenya P4, GD -8, Pts 3 5. Zimbabwe P4, GD -19, Pts 0