Defending champions Boland came back with a vengeance at the Spar National Netball Championships at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on Thursday.
After suffering two surprise losses on Wednesday, they came back to beat both teams they'd lost to, to take pole position in the second half of the tournament.
In their early morning match, Boland beat Nelson Mandela Bay 34-30, to avenge their 40-31 defeat the day before, and in their second match of the day, they trounced Gauteng East 57-35 to send Elsje Jordaan's young team crashing back to earth after their giant-killing exploits in the first part of the tournament.
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Gauteng East squeezed a narrow one-goal victory over Boland in their round robin match, to add to wins over Western Province and Gauteng West.
Earlier on Thursday, Gauteng East lost 46-43 to North West South. They are now bottom of the top pool in the A-section, with virtually no chance of reaching the final.
"It really hurts, but we always knew we were not going to win the tournament this time round," said Jordaan.
"What we have to do is to pick ourselves up and try to win some matches and see how well we can do."
North West South, who were hampered by injury and illness earlier in the tournament, were almost back at full strength when they beat Gauteng East.
Player/coach Shelley Norris of New Zealand was delighted with the way her team had come back from their earlier setbacks.
"Everyone did their jobs today, and I'm proud of the way they have fought back. The team that fights the hardest normally wins the day," she said.
However, North West South suffered a setback in their second match of the day when they lost 52-46 to Gauteng North. North West South led for the first half of the match, with a 27-24 lead at halftime, but the team from Pretoria came back strongly, levelling matters at 37-all after the third quarter, and then dominating the last 15 minutes.
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