By: Kayiira Jackson
Day one results:
UCU Angels 54-35 Dynamite Netball Academy
NIC Netball Club 39-40 KCCA Netball Club
UPDF 46-43 UGISA Netball Club
Busia Greater Lions 44-42 UGX-LUWEERO
The Uganda Netball women’s super league returned to action after almost two years of no show and four fixtures were honored on Saturday at Nakivubo Stadium.
UCU Angels started as the best side on the day beating the new league entrants 54-35 and with the numerical advantage, they top the table on match week one.
Besides UCU’s good performance, the game of the day was between the record champions, National Insurance Corporation (NIC) and KCCA Netball Club.
KCCA Netball Club with a difference of one goal beat NIC 40-39 in an epic encounter held at Nakivubo Stadium.
Fred Mugerwa’s girls started as the best side and won the first quarter with a difference of one goal [11-10] and Shadia Nassanga fresh from Malaysian league looked better with her goal shooting accuracy.
KCCA continued with the same energy in the second quarter and their centre player, Nakazibwe Brendah had the control of the game giving them the rhythm and at a certain point inside the second quarter, KCCA took the game to a difference of four goals but their shooting pair made some errors and brought NIC back in the race and the first half ended 19-18 in favor of KCCA.
NIC woke up in the third quarter, scoring 12 goals against the only eight KCCA netted and in this quarter, NIC came in the driving seat for the first time in the match, it ended 27-30 in favor of NIC.
It seemed done and dusted for NIC to take the game, the fourth quarter returned and NIC had the centre pass, took the lead to four goals but KCCA’s defence of Shaffie Nalwanja, Kitimbo Flavia and Christine Nakitto was very exceptional in the last quarter, making two crucial steals that brought KCCA back in the game and Shadia Nassanga had the final shoot that won the match for the Kasasiro girls.
For starters, even in the previous season (2022/23), KCCA won the first leg against NIC and in that season, NIC never won the trophy.
On match day two, KCCA will be playing against Busia Greater Lions while NIC will have another sharp hill to climb as they visit defending champions, Prisons Netball Club.
In other fixtures, UPDF beat UGISA 46-43 before Busia Greater Lions beat UGX-Luweero 44-42.
