There were top three finishes for most of Stellenbosch University's USSA teams last week, with the Steinhoff Maties Hockey men's team, Maties Cycling team and Maties Gymnastics team bringing home gold medals from their respective competitions.
The hockey men beat the University of Pretoria (Tuks) in a penalty shootout in the final.
"The USSA gold medal means a lot. We put in a lot of hard work this season; especially in our preparation camp leading up to the tournament. We have underperformed at USSA for the last few years, so to finally get a gold medal is a great feeling," said captain Dylan Swanepoel.
Maties' Keenan Horne was named player of the tournament and Rob McKinley was named goalkeeper of the tournament. Read more.
The Maties Hockey women's team finished in third place after beating Kovsies 4-2 in the bronze-medal play-off match.
Maties Cycling successfully defended their USSA title and the men dominated the competition by winning the yellow jersey, green jersey, team classification, all hotspots except one, as well as all stages but one in the road race competition. Read more.
Maties Rugby won silver after losing 21-17 against Tuks in the final while Maties Surfing repeated their performance of last year by coming second in the competition held at Victoria Bay.
In the badminton and squash competitions Maties' A teams won silver in their sections while both B teams won gold in the B sections.
Squash players Daniel Smith, Aubrey Lawrence and Ashleigh Scheepers were included in the USSA Top 6 team and Aubrey was also identified as the most improved player.
Maties Netball came fourth after a narrow loss against Kovsies (44-42) in the bronze medal play-off match.
The Maties Basketball men's team finished sixth (out of 16 teams) in their debut USSA tournament, qualifying for the Varsity Sports tournament. The women's team finished in 11th place. Read more.
"I want to congratulate all our Stellenbosch University athletes, teams, coaches and support staff on their excellent performances at the various USSA competitions last week," said Ilhaam Groenewald, Chief Director: Maties Sport.
"Our performance targets include to be in the top 3 at all levels, and we are therefore very proud of all our participants and looking forward to doing even better next year."
Photo: Steinhoff Maties Hockey teams
