{"id":5898,"date":"2026-10-10T05:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2026-10-10T05:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:48:21","slug":"spar-south-africa-fall-to-namibia-in-opening-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/10\/spar-south-africa-fall-to-namibia-in-opening-test\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAR South Africa Fall to Namibia in Opening Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The SPAR South African Women\u2019s Indoor Hockey team began their five-match series against Namibia with a 3\u20130 defeat at the Sports Facilitation Centre in Windhoek on Friday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Header image provided by SA Hockey<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">A brace from Leila <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Gr\u00f6gli<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> and a fourth-quarter strike from Amber <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Dercksen<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> secured victory for the hosts, leaving South Africa chasing a response in Saturday\u2019s double-header.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The evening nevertheless marked an important milestone for four South African players. Jehan Abrahams, Anja Tromp, Jodie Blows and goalkeeper Manisha Desai all made their international indoor debuts, beginning their journeys in the green and gold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">After a goalless opening quarter, Namibia broke the deadlock in the 13th minute through <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Gr\u00f6gli<\/span><span class=\"s5\">. Her field goal proved the only score of the first half, with the hosts taking a narrow 1\u20130 advantage into the interval.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">Gr\u00f6gli<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> struck again in the 24th minute to double Namibia\u2019s lead. South Africa earned three penalty corners during the third quarter but were unable to find the breakthrough, heading into the final period two goals behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">Dercksen<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> added Namibia\u2019s third in the 34th minute. A further three South African penalty corners in the closing quarter brought no reward, as the hosts completed the victory without conceding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">South Africa finished with six penalty corners to Namibia\u2019s three, with all six of their opportunities coming after halftime. Converting those chances will be an important area to improve as the visitors look to level the series. Namibia, meanwhile, scored all three of their goals from open play.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">For Calvin Price\u2019s side, the opening result provides an early challenge in a demanding weekend of international hockey. With four debutants now having their first taste of Test action, attention turns to building on that experience and delivering a stronger performance in the next encounter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s6\"><span class=\"s5\">The series continues on Saturday, 10 October, with the second Test at 12:00 and the third at 19:30. Both matches will be streamed live on Gravity\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\">Result:<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> Namibia 3\u20130 South Africa<\/span><span class=\"s5\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s4\">Namibia scorers:<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> Leila <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Gr\u00f6gli<\/span><span class=\"s5\"> (13\u2019, 24\u2019), Amber Dercksen (34\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SPAR South African Women\u2019s Indoor Hockey team began their five-match series against Namibia with a 3\u20130 defeat at the Sports Facilitation Centre in Windhoek <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/10\/spar-south-africa-fall-to-namibia-in-opening-test\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-5898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","tag-indoor-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5901,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions\/5901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}