The Western Cape team put up a good fight, but their efforts were simply no match for the defending champions.

UWC were caught napping in the first quarter as they had minimal chances with Kovsies clearly being the better side, capitalising on most of their opportunities. Kovsies goal shooter Alyssa Trahms asked a lot of questions from the UWC defenders, making sure her team had a 25-goal cushion halfway through the match.

Kovsies took a bit of a breather in the third quarter with UWC outscoring their more fancied opponents 13-11. The Capetonians kept up the pace in the last 15 minutes of the match, losing the final quarter by only two goals.

Sikholiwe Mdletshe (Kovsies): “All of our players got some running time on court and that’s what you want from the first game. We are not focussing on defending the title, we are focusing game by game, centre pass by centre pass. If we can focus on each game, the title will come.”

Quarter scores: 18-8 | 43-18 | 51-31 | 65-43

Match stats: Goal Percentage – Kovsies 78% UWC 87% |Intercepts – Kovsies 17 UWC 9 | Penalties – Kovsies 47 UWC 58

Player of the match: Sikholiwe Mdletshe (Kovsies)