Malawi Under-19 national netball team recovered after trailing in two sets to beat Namibia 42-39 at the Griffin Saenda Indoor Sports Complex in Lilongwe on Monday.

It was a great response from the hosts following a 32-55 defeat to South Africa on Saturday.

In the first quarter, Namibia led narrowly 9-8. In the second quarter, it was 23-22 to Namibia.

Things changed in the third quarter as Malawi came with renewed purpose to open a five-basket gap with a 29-34 lead. The fourth quarter ended 42-39.

Goal Shooter Stella Matelezi and goal attackers Aminah Msusa and Florence Jeke were at the heart of Malawi offensive play combining in all the 42 goals.

Malawi’s head coach Christina Mkwanda hailed the players for a resilient mentality.

“The start was not good as our girls were were emulating our opponents style of play. At half time, we told them to calm down and apply our game plan. Since our opponents were fast, we switched to tight marking marking and it worked,” she said Mkwanda.

Malawi face Zimbabwe today in their next fixture.

“We are using round robin format and if we beat Zimbabwe, we will reach the final. We were slow in reacting to situations which affected our play. We need to work on those weakness before the next game,” she said.

Netball Association of Malawi vice general secretary Diana Nkhulembe hailed the team for its fighting spirit.

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