Varsity Netball newcomers, Central University of Technology (CUT) will be looking to make a name for themselves in the competition. The Free State side will be making their first appearance in the competition following an impressive run over the last three years. The Martha Mosoahle-Samm led side qualified for the tournament after last year’s University Sport South Africa (USSA) Netball Championships where they finished in the top eight. They continued their good form in the 2026 edition and secured the fifth spot, ensuring another participation in the Varsity Netball next year.
The Varsity Netball tournament, launched in 2013, sees the country’s top eight universities battle it out for the title. The University of the Free State has won the most titles with five, and they are followed by defending champions, the University of the North West, with three. The University of Pretoria have two titles to their name and the Stellenbosch University has one.
Although coming in as debutants in the competition, which runs from 23 August to 28 September, Mosoahle-Samm believes that her side will not be a walkover.
“I am looking forward to seeing the girls perform the way they did at USSA. I mean going out there and upsetting some of the big teams during USSA was quite the highlight. We want to continue with that, to see what the youngsters can do at that big stage. We will be introducing a couple of newbies, to see what we can do, if we can cause major upsets again and challenge the big teams. We are ranked No 5 in South Africa, so we are no longer the underdogs. That is the message that we want to carry through the Varsity Cup, that we are here to perform and we are here to stay,” says Mosoahle-Samm.
The Free State Crinums coach took over the reins at CUT where the team was competing in division C and has over five years transformed the team and promoted it to the division A. Mosoahle-Samm says she is pleased with how her side has progressed in various competitions in the last few years.
“When I took over at CUT, they were ranked number 30 of all the universities. We started from the C section, went to the B then went to the A and immediately went to the top eight. Now we are in the top five, and that is something I will never take for granted,” she explains.
Meanwhile, the 2022 winners, Maties, are eager to go back to the top of the podium. Stellies host the opening round of the tournament at the Maties Coetzenburg Indoor Centre before the competition moves to Bloemfontein. The Wits Sports Hall and the Tuks Rembrandt Hall will stage the Gauteng rounds of the tournament.
Maties coach, Sasha-Lee Petersen states that taking the gold medal would be a special occasion in the university’s historic milestone of 100 years of the netball club.
“The podium for us this year is the end goal. It begins at home, we are looking forward to that. We always have a great crowd. We will push every weekend and stay consistent and hopefully we will get our goal, which is a podium finish. It is huge for us this year. The goal is to win it. It’s our 100 years as a club, we are celebrating a 100 years of Maties Netball Club so it would be sweet if we can win it in our 100th year,” says Petersen.
The former Western Cape Tornados midcourt player stresses the importance of various competitions in building towards the last tournament of the year. Maties maintained the place in the top eight in the USSA championships where they narrowly missed a medal after losing to Kovies in the bronze medal match. Maties open their campaign against 2024 finalists, UJ before taking on 2024 winners, Kovsies. Petersen believes her side has had good preparations for the contest.
“We prepared well from USSA, and we had the Spar (Netball) Championships as preparation as well. USSA is our first tournament because we don’t play in the inter-varsity that the others do. It was a tournament for us to see what we have to work on and the improvements, taking the positives and continuing to do that,” she says.
The Maroon Machine has notably added Zahrah Noah and Lisa Ingwersen who both were part of the Baby Spar Proteas team at the 2025 Netball World Youth Cup where South Africa made history by reaching the semifinals for the first time. The team will, however, be without experienced defender Syntiche Kabuya, who was part of the Spar Proteas squad that played in the Vitality Netball Nations Cup in 2025. Even with the changes in her squad, Petersen is confident that her team will do well this season.
“The core remains the same. There are some changes but a lot of the core and seniors have stayed,” she explains.