The head coach of the Debmarine Desert Jewels, Julene Meyer, says her team will give it their all going forward after losing against Zambia at the African Netball Cup on Thursday.

The 13th edition of the prestigious continental tournament is underway in Gaborone, Botswana with some of the best netball nations in the continent fighting for silverware.

In their second match at the championship, Namibia’s senior netball team lost 42-52 against Zambia at the University of Botswana in Gaborone where the championship is being played.

On their second day of action at the championship the Namibian team started trailing in the game from the word go, losing the first quarter 10-13.

The second quarter saw Zambia improving their lead to five points with the score standing at 21-26 at halftime.

The Namibian team tried their best, but the Zambian team remained dominant. The Zambians were precise with their passing and took advantage of Namibia’s mistakes, leading to a 10-point lead of 28-38 by the end of the third qu
arter.

The fourth quarter saw both teams controlling possession despite Zambia forcing Namibia into making errors. But it was too little, too late for the Desert Jewels as that quarter saw both teams scoring 10 points to end the match with a 42-52 final score.

In an interview after the match, Meyer said everything that could go wrong, went wrong during the match.

‘We did not have a great game as all our tactics did not work out as planned, but we are going to dust ourselves off and come back stronger,’ she said.

Meyer added that despite losing the match against Zambia she was happy with her players’ performance.

Namibia’s next match at the competition takes place at 15h00 on Friday against Kenya.

The 2023 Africa Netball Cup sees South Africa, the defending champions, fighting it out against host Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya, and Eswatini for top honours.

Source: Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA)